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Blue Jays, Tyler Rogers Agree To Three-Year Deal

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The Blue Jays are in agreement with free agent reliever Tyler Rogers on a three-year, $37MM contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The deal, which is pending a physical, includes an $11MM vesting option for the 2029 season, specifics of which have not been reported. Toronto has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move. Rogers is represented by Frontline Athlete Management.

Rogers, who’ll celebrate his 35th birthday next week, secures a sizable payday to pitch at the back of the Toronto bullpen. One of the sport’s most distinctive pitchers, Rogers is a soft-tossing submariner who bided his time awaiting an MLB opportunity. He was a 10th-round pick by the Giants in 2013 who signed for $7,500 after his senior season at Austin Peay State University. Rogers spent the next six years in the minor leagues, performing well all the way up through Triple-A but without the raw stuff to get the attention of the big league club.

It wasn’t until the end of Rogers’ third full season in Triple-A that he received an MLB look. He was nearing his 29th birthday and close to calling it quits to pursue a career as a firefighter (as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area covered in 2020). The Giants finally gave him an opportunity at the end of the ’19 season. Rogers tossed 17 2/3 innings of three-run ball to hold his roster spot. He broke camp the following year and has never gone back down to the minors — not even on a rehab stint.

Rogers has played six-plus seasons in the big leagues without going on the injured list. While there’s obviously some luck involved in avoiding any fluke injuries, it’s clear that his underhand delivery puts less stress on his arm. Rogers has made 403 appearances since the start of the 2020 season. That’s 30 more than any other pitcher. Most of those outings have come in high-leverage situations, as his arm angle continues to flummox hitters.

After posting a 4.50 earned run average as a rookie, Rogers has turned in a 3.04 mark or better in four of the past five seasons. He ranks near the bottom of the league in whiffs and has never posted a league average strikeout rate. That’s to be expected for a pitcher who throws an 82-83 MPH sinker and a sweeping breaking ball that clocks in around 74 MPH. It’s a profile designed for weak, ground-ball contact. Rogers gets that year after year, and he almost never puts batters on via base on balls.

While some pitchers with extremely low arm slots can struggle with opposite-handed batters, that hasn’t been an issue for Rogers. He has held lefties to a .235/.289/.336 line in 776 career plate appearances. Right-handed hitters haven’t fared much better, turning in .246/.282/.350 mark in nearly 1000 trips to the plate.

Rogers has spent the bulk of his career in San Francisco, including a two-year stretch where he overlapped with twin brother Taylor Rogers. The Giants fell out of contention shortly before the trade deadline and flipped the impending free agent to the Mets for middle reliever José Buttó and prospects Blade Tidwell and Drew Gilbert. Rogers continued churning out results in his new home, pitching 27 1/3 innings of 2.30 ERA ball. He finished the season with a career-best 1.98 earned run average behind a 62.1% grounder rate while leading MLB with 81 appearances.

The Mets unsurprisingly wanted Rogers back, but they balked at what turned out to be a surprisingly lucrative contract. He more than doubled MLBTR’s prediction of a two-year, $18MM deal. New York has also seen Edwin Díaz, Gregory Soto and Ryan Helsley sign elsewhere. They’ve added Devin Williams to close but will need to find multiple setup arms from the right side.

That’s the role Rogers should continue to fill with the Jays. Toronto was open to supplanting Jeff Hoffman in the ninth inning, but they didn’t come away with any of Díaz, Raisel Iglesias or Robert Suarez. Rogers had a brief run as San Francisco’s closer in 2021 but has otherwise been a setup man. He was fourth in MLB with 32 holds this past season and handily leads the majors in that category over the last six years. Rogers joins Louis Varland as the top leverage arms in front of Hoffman.

The Jays could still look to add a better left-hander than Brendon Little, but Rogers becomes the fifth member of their projected bullpen who cannot be optioned to the minor leagues. Hoffman, Yimi García and Eric Lauer all have the five-plus years of service time to refuse any minor league assignment. Tommy Nance is out of options. Varland can be optioned but certainly isn’t in jeopardy of being sent down. If the Jays have all six starters healthy going into the season, that’d leave only one spot for Little or another left-handed acquisition. That’s to say nothing of the out-of-options Justin Bruihl and Rule 5 picks Angel Bastardo and Spencer Miles — all of whom have an uphill battle to stick on the roster.

Those are secondary considerations for an all-in Toronto team. The $12.333MM average annual value pushes their estimated luxury tax number to $294MM, as calculated by RosterResource. That’s already easily a franchise high before considering the possibility that they add Kyle Tucker or bring back Bo Bichette.

That’ll be their second straight season paying the competitive balance tax. They’re hit with a 42% tax on spending between $264MM and $284MM and taxed at a 75% rate from $284MM to $304MM. Any spending above the final threshold comes with a 90% penalty. The Rogers deal will come with an approximate $8-9MM tax bill. It also firmly pushes them beyond the $284MM mark at which their top pick in the 2027 draft is moved back by 10 spots (though that was basically inevitable after the Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce signings).

It’s a significant investment in a 35-year-old reliever. The Braves also went to three years, at $15MM annually, to sign Suarez on Thursday. That was the first three-year contract for a reliever that age since 2020. There hadn’t been a three-year term at more than $10MM per season for a 35-year-old bullpen arm since Mariano Rivera almost two decades ago. A closer who sits around 99 MPH, Suarez breaking that precedent wasn’t as surprising. The Jays are betting on Rogers’ unconventional style to age equally well.

Image courtesy of Kyle Ross, Imagn Images.

Blue Jays Acquire Chase Lee

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The Tigers have traded right-hander Chase Lee to the Blue Jays in exchange for minor league lefty Johan Simon, according to announcements from both clubs. This move is likely to open a 40-man spot for the Tigers to make their signing of Kyle Finnegan official. The Jays had a 40-man vacancy but Lee takes up the final spot. Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic first reported that Lee was headed to the Jays while Mitch Bannon of The Athletic first mentioned Simon as the return.

Lee, 27, doesn’t throw especially hard but is able to deceive batters with his sidearm delivery. Originally a draft pick of the Rangers, he was traded to the Tigers as part of the 2024 deadline deal which sent Andrew Chafin the other way.

In 204 2/3 minor league innings, Lee has allowed 4.13 earned runs pere nine, with a fairly average 8% walk rate but a strong 30.9% strikeout rate. The Tigers called him up to make his major league debut in 2025. He gave them 37 1/3 innings with a 4.10 ERA. His four-seam fastball only averaged 89.2 miles per hour while he also threw a sinker, slider and changeup. He struck out 24.3% of opponents while limiting walks to a 6.1% clip.

For the Jays, Lee adds some extra bullpen depth. He still has options and can therefore be sent to Triple-A Buffalo and back throughout the year. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet recently wrote a piece about how the Jays appear to be prioritizing different arm angles, so it’s possible they are particularly attracted to Lee’s sidearming abilities. He has less than a year of service time and is therefore years away from qualifying for arbitration and even further from free agency. If he’s able to carve out a meaningful role in the big leagues, he could be a long-term piece for the Jays.

To get Lee, the Jays are giving up Simon, an international signing out of the Dominican Republic. In 2025, he began at Single-A and then climbed to High-A and Double-A. Across those three levels, he tossed 71 relief innings with a 3.42 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and a massive 64% ground ball rate.

For the Tigers, they had a 40-man roster crunch and needed to lose someone. With this deal, they’ve lost a bit of immediate depth but replaced Lee with a non-roster arm who is only slightly farther away from the majors.

Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images

Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro Signs Five-Year Extension

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Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro has signed a five-year contract extension, Rogers Communications (which owns the Jays) announced Friday.

“The opportunity to lead the Blue Jays organization over the past 10 years has been incredibly fulfilling,” Shapiro said in a statement within today’s announcement. “Together we have built an organization with people who care deeply about baseball and take immense pride in being Canada’s team. I am grateful and honoured to be able to continue that work.”

Shapiro, 58, has spent the past decade as the Blue Jays’ president and CEO. He’d previously been the general manager and, eventually, team president in Cleveland. His past contract ran through the end of the calendar year. Current Jays general manager Ross Atkins was hired away from Cleveland by Shapiro; he’d previously been their vice president of player personnel.

Both Shapiro and Atkins have now signed multiple long-term extensions to remain in place as the top decision-makers for the Jays. Shapiro is now locked in through the 2030 season. Atkins signed a five-year extension back in 2021 and is currently signed through the end of the 2026 campaign.  Given the Jays’ run to Game 7 of the World Series, it stands to reason that Atkins could be in line for an extension of his own at some point in the coming months.

Under Shapiro and Atkins, the Jays have won 89 or more games in four of the past five seasons. They hadn’t had any playoff success — save for the 2016 season, though that was a largely inherited club from the prior regime — but broke through in a major way in 2025 when they toppled the Yankees and Mariners in the ALDS and ALCS before coming just two outs away from the franchise’s first World Series victory since the 1992-93 repeat.

While the Jays have often been runners-up for prominent free agents in recent seasons (e.g. Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani), this year’s World Series push and the team’s $500MM investment in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. have perhaps helped to establish the Jays as more of a free agent destination. Right-hander Dylan Cease just inked a seven-year contract, and Toronto has shown interest in both Kyle Tucker and in re-signing star infielder Bo Bichette, who reached the open market for the first time in his career this offseason. Ownership’s decision to commit to another extension with Shapiro is both a vote of confidence in the team’s current core and vision, as well as a signal that Toronto will be continuing in win-now mode for the foreseeable future.

Blue Jays Sign Cody Ponce To Three-Year Deal

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December 11th: The Jays officially announced the Ponce signing today. According to The Associated Press, he receives a $3MM signing bonus and an $5MM salary for the 2026. He’ll make $11MM annually between 2027-28.

December 2nd: The Blue Jays are reportedly in agreement with free agent starter Cody Ponce on a three-year, $30MM contract. The deal is pending a physical and has yet to be announced by the team. The Jays have two openings on the 40-man roster and do not need to make a corresponding move. Ponce, a client of Excel Sports Management, returns to the majors after an MVP-winning season in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Toronto continues to load up in the rotation on the same day they finalized their seven-year contract with Dylan Cease. They already had a strong top four with Cease, Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman and Shane Bieber. Ponce and José Berríos project as the fifth and sixth starters in what looks like one of the strongest rotations in baseball. Eric Lauer, who pitched to a 3.18 ERA over 104 2/3 innings in a swing role this year, is down to seventh on the depth chart.

The three-year deal and $10MM average annual value suggests the Jays view Ponce as a starter. He doesn’t have much rotation experience in the big leagues, starting five of 20 appearances with the Pirates between 2020-21. Ponce struggled in that first look but has reinvented himself since moving to Asia. He pitched parts of three seasons in Japan before a breakout 2025 season with the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles.

Ponce took the ball 29 times and turned in a 1.89 earned run average across 180 2/3 innings. He recorded a league-best 36.2% strikeout percentage against a tidy 6% walk rate. Ponce led the league with 252 strikeouts overall and was the only KBO pitcher with a sub-2.00 ERA in more than 100 innings.

The numbers alone would have been enough for Ponce to get back on the MLB radar. The more important factor for his contract was that his stuff has taken a matching jump. Ponce averaged 93.2 MPH on his fastball during his big league look, but a scout with a non-Toronto team told MLBTR in October that his velocity had climbed into the mid-90s. Eno Sarris of The Athletic wrote earlier this week that his average heater was in the 95 MPH range, and he has been clocked up to 98. Ponce has reportedly picked up a splitter — the carrying pitch for Yesavage and Gausman as well — and mixes in a cutter and curveball.

Ponce throws harder and has better secondary stuff than Erick Fedde did when he returned to North America after his own MVP season in Korea. As a result, the 31-year-old gets an extra year and doubled the $15MM guarantee that Fedde received from the White Sox over the 2023-24 offseason. Fedde, for what it’s worth, pitched well in his first year back before his numbers cratered this past season.

It’s a strong deal for Ponce, who tops MLBTR’s prediction of two years and $22MM. It’s by far the biggest payday of his career. Ponce received a signing bonus a little north of $1MM as a second-round pick by the Brewers in the 2015 draft. He did not come close to the service time to qualify for arbitration in his first stint in MLB and played on a $1MM contract with the Eagles.

The salary breakdown hasn’t been reported, but an even distribution of $10MM annually would push Toronto’s projected payroll to roughly $272MM (courtesy of RosterResource). The $10MM average annual value pushes their luxury tax projection above $280MM. The Jays are in the second tier and are taxed at a 42% rate on spending between $264MM and $284MM. That means they’ll pay $4.2MM in taxes for the first season of the Ponce contract. That’s a relative drop in the bucket given the amount the Jays are spending, but the payroll only seems likely to climb. They’d like to re-sign Bo Bichette and will almost certainly add a high-leverage reliever to join Jeff Hoffman and Louis Varland at the back end.

Spending beyond the $284MM mark would raise their tax penalties and result in their top pick in the 2027 draft being moved back 10 spots. That doesn’t appear to be much of a deterrent for a team that forfeited its second and fifth-highest picks in next summer’s draft and $1MM from its international bonus pool to sign Cease. The Jays are all in after coming tantalizingly close to their first World Series in three decades.

If payroll does become an obstacle to re-signing Bichette or adding to the bullpen, the Jays could look to shop Berríos. He’s making $18MM next season and will need to decide whether to opt out of the remaining two years and $48MM on the deal after 2026. It’s not an egregious contract but looks above market for what’ll be ages 32-34 on a pitcher who has struck out fewer than 20% of batters faced in consecutive seasons. Berríos is a solid source of back-of-the-rotation innings, but the Jays would probably need to pay down some of the money and/or take back a slightly underwater deal in a trade.

The simpler path would be to keep everyone and open the season with a six-man rotation if no one suffers an injury during Spring Training. No team gets through an entire season using only five starters. The pitching staff logged a lot of innings this fall. Gausman and Bieber will be free agents after next season, and while Berríos doesn’t look like he’s trending towards an opt-out, that could change with a strong platform year. Lauer will also return to the open market next winter.

Aside from Yesavage, the Jays don’t have much in the way of upper level pitching prospects. Former top prospect Ricky Tiedemann is on the 40-man roster and will probably make his MLB debut in 2026, but he missed the entire ’25 season and has pitched 140 innings since being drafted in 2021. The durability concerns might push him to the bullpen, and even if the Jays want to give him another chance as a starter, they’re certainly not going to let him throw 150 innings. Jake Bloss is unlikely to be a factor until the second half after undergoing elbow surgery in May. The Ponce signing probably rules the Jays out on bringing back Chris Bassitt or Max Scherzer but doesn’t make a Berríos trade a foregone conclusion.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Ponce and the Jays were finalizing a three-year deal. ESPN’s Jeff Passan had the $30MM guarantee.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Blue Jays Finalize 2026 Coaching Staff

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TODAY: The Blue Jays officially announced their 2026 coaching staff.  Duncan will be a Major League field coordinator, Atkinson will be an assistant hitting coach, and Butera will have the general role of Major League coach.  Bannon believes Butera and Duncan will also share in bench coach duties with other members of the staff, as the Jays plan to divvy up Mattingly’s responsibilities rather than name a full-time bench coach.

DECEMBER 9: The Blue Jays have reportedly made multiple additions to manager John Schneider’s staff. Former catcher Drew Butera is expected to be in the dugout next season, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. He’ll be joined by Eric Duncan and Cody Atkinson, reports Mitch Bannon of The Athletic.

Butera was a catching instructor with the White Sox for the past two seasons. He had previously been a bullpen catcher and catching coach with the Angels. Butera spent 12 seasons behind the plate in the big leagues. He played for five different teams, with his longest stints coming with the Royals and Twins. Butera won a World Series ring with Kansas City in 2015.

Duncan served as Toronto’s director of position player development in 2024, per Bannon. His first MLB coaching gig was with the Marlins as an assistant hitting coach in 2019. He also worked as a quality control coach with the team. Duncan was a first-round pick by the Yankees in 2003. He topped out at Triple-A as a player. New York hired him as a minor league coach in 2015.

Atkinson had been the Rangers’ minor league hitting director, per Bannon. He’s been in charge of the organization’s minor league hitting program since 2019, according to MLB.com. It’s unclear which roles the trio will fill, though it’s fair to assume Butera will contribute in the catching department, with Duncan and Atkinson helping out on the hitting side. The only news prior to today regarding Schneider’s staff had been the departure of bench coach Don Mattingly, who is being pursued by the Phillies.

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

Blue Jays Interested In Brad Keller

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The Blue Jays have been busy adding to their rotation this offseason but they’re not necessarily done. Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi of Sportsnet report that the Jays are still open to adding more starting options, with right-hander Brad Keller one guy they have interest in.

The club has already signed Dylan Cease and reportedly has an agreement in place with Cody Ponce as well. That now gives the Jays an on-paper rotation of Cease, Ponce, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos, with Eric Lauer, Bowden Francis, Ricky Tiedemann and others in the mix as well.

That’s plenty of depth in a sense but there are also some questions in there. Ponce is fairly unproven as he has been pitching in Asia and his last MLB game was several years ago. It was reported this week that Bieber dealt with forearm fatigue late in the 2025 campaign and is now questionable for Opening Day 2026. Berríos was bumped from the rotation late in the season and also wound up on the injured list with an elbow injury. He appears to be healthy now but there may be some discontent there and the Jays are reportedly open to trading him. Lauer pitched both as a starter and reliever in 2025 and could be in line for the same type of role next year. Francis and Tiedemann are both coming off seasons lost to injuries. There’s plenty of long-term uncertainty as well. Gausman, Bieber and Lauer are all slated for free agency after 2026. Berríos has an opt-out in his deal at that time as well.

Keller is a logical target for the Jays, and many other clubs, since he could be deployed either out of the rotation or the bullpen. If the Jays were to sign him, his role could depend on his own performance as well as future moves, the health of Bieber, and various other factors.

Earlier in his career, Keller was a decent starter for the Royals. He didn’t get a ton of strikeouts but he got opponents to hit the ball into the the ground. From 2018 to 2020, he posted a 3.50 earned average with a 16.8% strikeout rate and 52.1% ground ball rate. He then endured a few years of struggle, with a 5.14 ERA from 2021 to 2023. He underwent surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome in October of 2023. He returned to action in 2024 but without much success, posting a 5.44 ERA as a swingman.

In 2025, he got a relief role with the Cubs and ran with it. He logged 69 2/3 innings on the year overall with a tiny ERA of 2.07. His 56.1% ground ball rate was in his usual range but he also managed to punch out 27.2% of batters he faced, almost double his early-career rate.

In recent years, it has become quite common to stretch out successful relievers, often in cases involving guys with previous starting experience. Garrett Crochet, Seth Lugo, Michael King, Clay Holmes and Reynaldo López have had varying degrees of success with the switch. It didn’t go quite as well with guys like A.J. Puk and Jordan Hicks. But the appeal for a team is clear, as it’s usually an attempt to get a starter for a reliever price.

At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Keller to secure a $36MM guarantee over three years, with that prediction baking in the possibility some clubs would view him as a starter. $12MM annually isn’t nothing but it’s still cheaper than veteran injury reclamation deals. Guys like Alex Cobb and Max Scherzer got $15MM contracts last winter, for instance. The top guys, like Cease, get about double that annually.

Keller has indeed received interest as a starter this winter, with the Tigers and Yankees reportedly interested in him. The connection to the Tigers came before they signed Drew Anderson, so it’s possible that deal diminishes their interest in Keller somewhat. For the Yankees, they have a number of starters who are going to start the season on the injured list, so it seems the plan would be for Keller to start initially. As other pitchers get healthy, perhaps he could end up pushed into a relief role.

As mentioned, the thinking with the Jays would be somewhat similar. Bringing Keller into the mix could bolster the rotation but he could also end up in the bullpen if he’s not one of the top five rotation options. The Jays will presumably be balancing their desire to sign Keller with their other priorities.

RosterResource projects the Jays for a payroll of $268MM next year, which is already $10MM above where they finished in 2025. They seem to still be in the market for a closer and a big bat, with frequent connections to Bo Bichette and Kyle Tucker. Doing those things and also signing Keller will depend on how high the budget can go after their deep playoff run this year.

Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images

2025 Rule 5 Draft Results

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The 2025 Rule 5 draft is taking place this afternoon at the Winter Meetings in Orlando. This post will be updated with the results as they come in.

As a refresher, the Rule 5 draft is a way for players potentially talented enough for the big leagues but blocked by their current clubs to find opportunities elsewhere. Any players that were 18 and under at the time of their original signing and went professional in 2021, and any players who turned pro at 19 years of age or older in 2022, are eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft if they are not on a 40-man roster.

Though the amateur (Rule 4) draft now has a lottery to determine the selection order, the Rule 5 draft still goes the old-fashioned way of reverse order of standings from the season that just ended. Clubs need to have an open 40-man roster spot in order to make a pick but aren’t obligated to make a selection on their turn. If they do make a pick, they will have to pay $100K to the team they select from. The selected players must stay on the active roster (or injured list) for the entire 2026 season or else be placed on waivers. If they clear waivers, they must be offered back to their original team. They cannot be optioned to the minors.

Players like Anthony Santander and Ryan Pressly have been notable picks in other recent years while guys like George Bell and Roberto Clemente are found deeper in the history books. Last year, 15 players were selected. Only four of those remain with the club who selected them and only three of those have had their rights fully transferred to their new club. The White Sox took Shane Smith from the Brewers. The Marlins took Liam Hicks from the Tigers. Mike Vasil was taken by the Phillies from the Mets but was later traded to the Rays and then went to the White Sox via waivers.

The one other pick from last year’s draft which is still live is Angel Bastardo, who the Blue Jays took from the Red Sox. He was recovering from Tommy John surgery and spent the entire 2025 season on the injured list. He is still on Toronto’s 40-man but they don’t yet have his full rights, as a player needs at least 90 active days to remove the Rule 5 restrictions. If the Jays are willing to roster him for about three months during the 2026 season, they could then gain his full rights and option him to the minors. All other picks were eventually returned to their original organization and/or became free agents.

This year’s picks will be featured below as they come in…

  1. Rockies: RHP RJ Petit (from the Tigers) (Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs was on this before the official announcement)
  2. White Sox: RHP Jedixson Paez (Red Sox)
  3. Nationals: RHP Griff McGarry (Phillies)
  4. Twins: C Daniel Susac (Athletics) (Susac was then traded to the Giants, per Longenhagen. The Twins will get minor league catcher Miguel Caraballo in return, per Bobby Nightengale of The Minnesota Star Tribune)
  5. Pirates: RHP Carter Baumler (Orioles) (The Pirates then traded Baumler to the Rangers for RHP Jaiker Garcia. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News previously suggested Texas would likely get Baumler)
  6. Angels: pass
  7. Orioles: pass
  8. Athletics: RHP Ryan Watson (Giants) (Will be traded to Red Sox, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The A’s will get Justin Riemer in return, per Cotillo.)
  9. Braves: pass
  10. Rays: pass
  11. Cardinals: RHP Matt Pushard (Marlins)
  12. Marlins: pass
  13. Diamondbacks: pass
  14. Rangers: pass
  15. Giants: pass
  16. Royals: pass
  17. Reds: pass
  18. Mets: pass
  19. Tigers: pass
  20. Astros: RHP Roddery Muñoz (Reds)
  21. Guardians: RHP Peyton Pallette (White Sox)
  22. Red Sox: pass
  23. Mariners: pass
  24. Padres: pass
  25. Cubs: pass
  26. Dodgers: pass
  27. Blue Jays: RHP Spencer Miles (Giants)
  28. Yankees: RHP Cade Winquest (Cardinals)
  29. Phillies: RHP Zach McCambley (Marlins)
  30. Brewers: pass

Second round (all others passed)

Photo courtesy of Mike Watters, Imagn Images

Blue Jays Notes: Weaver, Outfielders, Berrios

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With the Blue Jays scouring the bullpen market, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports that Luke Weaver is one of the many relievers on the Jays’ radar.  Weaver temporarily served as the Yankees’ closer in 2025, but would presumably be used just in a high-leverage capacity by the Jays, and probably isn’t viewed as a candidate to supplant Jeff Hoffman in the ninth inning (unlike other Jays targets Robert Suarez or the newly-signed Dodger Edwin Diaz).

MLB Trade Rumors projected Weaver for a two-year, $18MM contract, and we ranked the right-hander 41st on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents.  He posted a 3.62 ERA, 7.6% walk rate, and 27.5% strikeout rate, with very strong chase and whiff rates accompanying that impressive K%.  However, Weaver’s 2025 season was a Jekyll-and-Hyde campaign built around a three-week absence in June due to a hamstring strain.

Weaver had a 1.05 ERA over 25 2/3 innings prior to his stint on the injured list, and then a 5.31 ERA over his final 39 innings of the season.  If the regular-season woes weren’t enough, Weaver was then charged with five earned runs over what was officially just one-third of an inning pitched over three playoff appearances — the Jays themselves contributed to this misery by scoring three runs off Weaver without a batter retired in their 10-1 rout in Game 1 of the ALDS.

The long ball was a big part of Weaver’s problem, as eight of his 10 home runs allowed in 2025 came following his IL stint.  His 27.5% grounder rate was one of the worst in the league, and well below the 38.7% grounder rate he’d posted over nine previous big league seasons.  The big question facing the Blue Jays or any other suitors is whether or not this susceptibility to home runs is a new reality for Weaver, or either a lingering after-effect of his hamstring injury or perhaps just because of some tipped pitches.

As Nicholson-Smith notes, spending huge money on a closer probably isn’t an ideal situation for Toronto’s front office, so Weaver represents an option a tier below Suarez’s asking price.  Beyond signing a reliever, another option would be to add bullpen help via the trade market, and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon write that the Blue Jays “are considering” the idea of trading an outfielder for a reliever.

Nathan Lukes, Myles Straw, Joey Loperfido, “and a few others” are candidates for such a deal.  Presumably this would mean minor league depth options like Jonatan Clase, and not presumptive starters like Daulton Varsho, Addison Barger, or Davis Schneider.  (The Blue Jays probably wouldn’t mind moving Anthony Santander, yet Toronto would have to eat a huge chunk of Santander’s remaining contract in the aftermath of his injury-marred down year.)

Lukes was a part-timer over his first two seasons with Toronto, but emerged as a regular in 2025, hitting .255/.323/.407 over 438 plate appearances (103 wRC+).  The left-handed hitting Lukes primarily played against right-handed pitching, though his splits were only somewhat better against righties than lefties.  Lukes can play all three outfield positions, and has delivered passable glovework in center field while excelling in corner outfield roles.

Outfield-needy teams could certainly view Lukes as a candidate for at least strong-side platoon duty.  He is also controllable through the 2030 season as a probable Super Two candidate when he gains arbitration eligibility next winter, though the late-blooming Lukes is already 31 years old.  The 26-year-old Loperfido is another player with long-term control since he has barely over a full year of MLB service time, and after he hit .333/.379/.500 over 104 PA for the Jays in 2025, rival clubs might be keen to see what he could do with more playing time.

This winter’s center field market is thin enough that Straw could be viewed as a glove-first starter.  Straw has never been much of a hitter throughout his eight MLB seasons, but posting a 91 wRC+ in 2025 (from a .262/.313/.267 slash line over 299 PA) counts as a relative surge by Straw’s standards.  Some teams will view that as an acceptable level of offense from a player who can deliver Gold Glove-worthy defense in center field.

Straw is the most expensive of this trio, as he is owed $7MM in 2026, and the Blue Jays hold an $8MM club option on his services for 2027 (with a $1.75MM buyout) and an $8.5MM club option for 2028 ($500K buyout).  As per the terms of the trade that brought Straw from Cleveland to Toronto last winter, the Guardians are covering $1MM in salary this year and will pay $1.75MM towards either the 2027 buyout or salary.

A $6MM immediate price tag for a superb defensive center fielder isn’t outlandish, and it is a testament to Straw’s bounce-back year that he has regained some value after being a salary dump for the Guardians last offseason.  Beyond just the statistics and the salary, however, Rosenthal/Sammon note that Straw’s reputation as a great locker room leader must be valued by both trade suitors and the Blue Jays, given how close-knit Toronto’s clubhouse was during their playoff run.

It makes for a difficult tightrope for the Jays to walk this winter, as while the team obviously wants to retain their 2025 magic on and off the field, some upgrades are needed.  Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce are already big new additions to the pitching staff, and beyond the possibility of a Bo Bichette reunion, signing a Kyle Tucker or an Alex Bregman would bring an entire new dimension to the lineup.  Nicholson-Smith suggests that if all of Bichette, Tucker, and Bregman signed elsewhere, Toronto wouldn’t necessarily feel the need to seek out another prominent hitter, as the team has trust in its core.  Such a decision would carry some risk, as the Jays would be hoping Santander regains his old form, and the rest of the lineup continues basically its team-wide breakout performance.

Jose Berrios’ situation has also been a subplot of Toronto’s offseason, as the Blue Jays are reportedly open to trading the veteran starter, though that’ll be a tricky endeavor considering Berrios’ down year and the three years and $66 remaining on his contract.  There have been rumblings that Berrios isn’t happy with his status with the team, as he was removed from the rotation late in the season and (ostensibly due to an injury) wasn’t part of the playoff roster.  According to The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon, Berrios hasn’t requested a trade.

GM Ross Atkins shared some details on Berrios when speaking with Bannon and other reporters on Monday, saying Berrios was indeed “disappointed that he wasn’t in our rotation.  He handled it well….We’re never going to have a situation where we have 40 players or even 26 players that are feeling great about the opportunity that they were given.”  The Blue Jays still view Berrios as a starter going into 2026, and rotation depth might be critical given how Shane Bieber isn’t necessarily a lock for Opening Day due to late-season forearm fatigue.

Braves, Cubs Among Teams Interested In Robert Suarez

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Edwin Diaz came off the market on Tuesday when he signed a three-year deal with the Dodgers earlier today. Now that both he and Devin Williams are off the board, veteran right-hander Robert Suarez stands as the clear top option available on the market for closers this winter. It didn’t take long after Diaz’s deal was reported for MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand to report that Suarez’s market was starting to gain traction. Feinsand highlighted the Mets, Blue Jays, and Braves as the “most aggressive suitors” for the righty’s services. New York and Toronto have both been connected to Suarez already this winter, but Atlanta is a newly-reported suitor. Meanwhile, Francys Romero of BeisbolFR throws the Cubs’ name into the mix as well, reporting that Chicago is exploring the closer market and adding that Suarez is “one of the ideal candidates” for the club.

Suarez, 35 in March, has been an All-Star in back-to-back seasons. He’s sporting a 2.87 ERA and 3.17 FIP with 76 saves in 134 2/3 innings of work across those two campaigns. This year, he struck out 27.9% of his opponents with a 5.9% walk rate, giving him a 21.9% K-BB ratio that ranked 26th among qualified relievers this year. Those excellent numbers are enough to make him one of the league’s top relievers, although the right-hander’s age and imperfect track record (including a middling 2023 season where injury limited him to just 26 appearances) figure to limit the length of his contract somewhat. MLBTR predicted Suarez for a three-year, $48MM deal as the #21 free agent on our Top 50 MLB Free Agents list for the offseason.

That would be a hefty sum for a team like the Braves to pay for a closer when they already have longtime closer Raisel Iglesias in the fold, particularly when Atlanta is also in the market for help at shortstop and in the rotation. With that said, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time the club committed significant dollars to their bullpen. Iglesias, Joe Jimenez and Aaron Bummer are both on significant contracts already, and players like Pierce Johnson and Will Smith have been guaranteed significant dollars by Atlanta in the past.

The Cubs seem like a much clearer fit for Suarez, at least on paper. They’ve lost Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz, Caleb Thielbar, and Andrew Kittredge from their bullpen this offseason. While they signed Phil Maton last month and Daniel Palencia remains a viable closing option, that’s still a lot of talent to lose from the late-inning relief mix. That makes it unsurprising that Chicago would be in the mix for a player like Suarez, although it’s worth noting that the Cubs have typically shied away from large multi-year commitments to relievers. Maton’s two-year deal is actually the first multi-year guarantee the team has signed a reliever to since Craig Kimbrel back in 2019, but a deal for Suarez would be on another level entirely; his annual salary would surely rival the $14.5MM total guarantee Maton landed.

The Mets and Blue Jays remain as perhaps the most obvious fits for the righty. While New York did bring Williams into the fold, they remained in on Diaz even after that signing. Now that Diaz has settled on Los Angeles, the Mets pivoting towards Suarez to strengthen the back of their bullpen is easy to understand, particularly after Williams delivered inconsistent results in the ninth inning as a member of the Yankees last year. The Jays, meanwhile, have long been known to be in the market for another high leverage reliever to pair with Jeff Hoffman in the late innings.

The number of quality closers on the market is dropping quickly, and if Toronto is hoping to add a high-end reliever with closing experience Suarez is undoubtedly the top option at this point. Keller and Tyler Rogers are alternative impact options still available who lack that ninth inning track record, while closers like Pete Fairbanks and Luke Weaver are still available but are coming off far less impressive seasons than the one Suarez just delivered in San Diego. The Marlins and White Sox are among the other teams known to be involved in the closing market this winter, though it would be a surprise to see either spend aggressively enough to land someone of Suarez’s caliber.

Shane Bieber Dealt With Forearm Fatigue Late In 2025 Season

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One of the winter’s earliest surprises was Shane Bieber’s decision to pick up a $16MM player option for the 2026 season rather than take a $4MM buyout and return to free agency. That choice was viewed as a head-scratcher around the league at the time, as the former Cy Young winner’s track record and the 3.66 ERA he posted in 59 innings between the regular season and playoffs with Toronto was likely enough to justify a solid multi-year deal.

A report this evening from The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon offers a bit more perspective on Bieber’s decision. Towards the end of the 2025 campaign, Bannon reports that Bieber was dealing with forearm fatigue. Bieber has since begun rehab work, and Bannon notes that Ross Atkins told reporters that the right-hander is “in a strong position.” While the Jays are currently taking things week-to-week with Bieber’s recovery process, Atkins noted that Bieber being ready to pitch on Opening Day remains “a very realistic outcome” though he stopped short of definitively saying Bieber would be part of the Opening Day roster.

That Bieber was dealing with a forearm issue just 13 appearances into his return from Tommy John surgery certainly seems to help explain his decision to exercise his 2026 player option. While there’s little doubt that Bieber could have beaten the $12MM he would’ve left on the table by declining the option in terms of overall guarantee, it’s plausible that teams would have been hesitant to commit a substantial average annual value to a pitcher coming off elbow surgery who was already rehabbing a fresh ailment. By sticking with Toronto this winter, Bieber gives himself the opportunity to rehab with the Blue Jays rather continuing his rehab as a free agent, and can now look to enter free agency next winter with what he’s surely hoping will be a full season of starts under his belt in 2026 to allay any concerns about the health of his arm going forward.

With Bieber’s status somewhat uncertain for Opening Day, it’s all the more understandable that the Blue Jays have been aggressive in adding to their rotation. Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Cody Ponce, and Jose Berrios figure to make up the club’s Opening Day rotation if Bieber were to start the year on the injured list, though the depth provided by players like Yariel Rodriguez, Bowden Francis, and Eric Lauer is strong enough that the Blue Jays seem to be considering the possibility of trading Berrios this winter. Cease, Gausman, and Bieber are all surely locked into rotation spots when healthy, and Yesavage showed more than enough down the stretch and into the playoffs to warrant first crack at a rotation job headed into 2026.

That would leave just one spot available for Ponce, Berrios, and the team’s depth options to compete for in Spring Training, and so it would hardly be a shock to see the Jays make a move that ships a rotation piece out at some point this winter. At the same time, however, Bannon reports that the Jays remain interested in adding starting pitching even after landing both Cease and Ponce in free agency earlier this winter. While the team is overflowing with rotation options, not all of them are especially reliable. In addition to questions surrounding Bieber’s health, Ponce’s return from the KBO league this year will come with inherent question marks.

Meanwhile, Berrios struggled in the second half and was relegated to the bullpen for October while Yesavage is a young arm who threw a career high in terms of innings this past year between the majors, minors, and postseason. It seems unlikely the team would look to add another high-end arm to the rotation given their needs in the bullpen and lineup, but perhaps additional depth to join players like Francis and Lauer as depth pieces would be valuable, especially in the event that Berrios is traded or Bieber opens the season on the injured list.

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