We can officially add the Blue Jays to the list of clubs seeking pen upgrades. GM Alex Anthopoulos acknowledged that the team was looking at relief arms, including veteran free agent Rafael Soriano, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter links).
As a group, Toronto’s bullpen has ranked 20th in earned run average, though advanced metrics indicate that the unit has been every-so-slightly unlucky. Looking at individual arms, only rookie Roberto Osuna and journeyman Liam Hendriks have thrown enough quality innings to register as substantially above replacement level by measure of fWAR, though Baseball-Reference credits Brett Cecil and Steve Delabar with 0.3 rWAR contributions as well (utilizing alternative advanced pitching metrics).
It’s no surprise, really, to hear that the Jays would be looking to bolster their relief corps. The loss of Marcus Stroman for the season left a hole in the rotation, which has had a trickle-down effect, and the club is already trotting out many of its system’s best young arms. Lefty Daniel Norris has been throwing fairly well at Triple-A since his demotion, however, and could conceivably come back up — either entering the pen himself or bumping a starter.
The Blue Jays have struggled, in particular, to retire opposing lefties in the late innings. They’re hitting a robust .261/.346/.426 against Toronto relievers, with a good portion of that damage coming against two of the team’s most-utilized southpaws (Cecil and Jeff Francis). Of course, Francis has now lost his spot, and Aaron Loup has put up better numbers when facing same-handed hitters (while struggling mightily against righty bats).
Soriano, of course, would not be added to match up against left-handed bats, though he was actually slightly better against them last year than when facing righties. But he would potentially offer another option in the closer’s role, moving Cecil into a setup role. Of course, Cecil himself has not been terribly effective against opposing lefties since 2013, but it would not be surprising to see the club go after a LOOGY as well.
Whatever direction the team hopes to go in adding arms, it will need to do some work in the standings to make buying a reasonable option at the deadline. Though the Jays stand just four-and-a-half back in the AL East entering today’s action, they sit five games under .500.
Who saw this coming?
Talk is cheap, seeing is believing.
AA has done basically nothing the past two years at mid-season to bolster the club. Other than dumpster diving with the waiver wire I’ll believe it when he actually makes a trade worthy enough.
Norris to the bullpen really isn’t on the table at this point as there isn’t enough SP depth to take him out of his current role. The bullpen could use some help, but it’s been middle of the pack statistically, so they don’t need to make desperation moves.
4th worst bullpen ERA in the AL and they have recorded a grand total of 6 saves this year. They need some help out there. Acquiring someone like an Aaron Harang then moving Sanchez to the pen could be beneficial.
Measuring the bullpen by save totals is misleading. Their victories tend to be blowouts, and they have trouble coming back from being down. I think that at this point, there is no chance Sanchez moves back to the bullpen, unless there is an innings limit concern for this season. Totally agree with the fact they need help though.
Sanchez is about to throw a complete game shutout, he’s been great for over a month. That would be extremely foolish.
The Jays also have the second best xFIP out of the ‘pen behind only the Yankees, so there are some encouraging signs. Soriano could be a nice addition, but there’s no need to panic.
The save opportunities are only down because of the offense, which is the best in the league by a massive margin.
Yet, the Jays lead the A.L in blown saves and have blown each and every chance they’ve been forced into using their bullpen from May 4th?
The Jays don’t have any high leverage relievers besides Cecil and Osuna.
Gamelog: May Blown Saves
May 26th: vs Chicago Loup/Hendriks 2BSV
May 20th vs Angels Dellabar 1BSV
May 16th vs Houston Hendriks 1BSV
May 14th vs Houston Loup 1BSV
High Leverage: .279/.354/.466/.820
Medium Leverage: .279/.345/.463/.808
Low Leverage: .229/.293/.374/.666
Roberto Osuna is the only reliever who’s pitched to more than 3(!) batters who’s been reliable in high leverage innings.
Roberto Osuna:
High Leverage: .270.293/.405/.698
Rest of bullpen has nobody below a 1.000OPS except for Miguel Castro. He got sent down because he was serving up beach balls.
I wanted to see how the Yankees with their superior bullpen have been doing thus far this season.
You want to see how the Yankees have produced in comparison?
2015 Yankees:
High Leverage: .233/.302/.341/.643
Medium Leverage: .262/.309/.364/.673
Low Leverage: .253/.309 /.431/.739
Andrew Miller:
High Leverage: .080/.193/.160/.353
Dellon Betances:
High Leverage: .146/.234/.171/.405
No reliever except Esmil Rogers and David Carpenter has an OPS above .800.
Sanchez has been good as of late starting, he wont be in the pen
Ya move your hottest starter to the pen, once he just found his bearings, smart smh.
Over the past 30 days, they’ve been 10th in the MLB in bullpen ERA. Perhaps they’ve settled into roles they’re comfortable in.
Think before you post.
Blue Jays seek bullpen help.
In other news, water is wet.
Jays will overpay for wash -up reliever !
I’m on my phone but there’s a reason they’re looking for help. Yes their xFIP and FIP are decent but those numbers are skewed by the low leverage situations in which the bullpens succeeded in.
Jays are struggling horrendously in high leverage and medium leverage situations. If I recall they have both a .800OPS in both situations while they’re posting a .650OPS in low leverage situations.
There’s no evidence that those types of trends are sustainable for relievers. It’s a coincidence and reacting to it would be a fools errand.
It’s a coincidence that Liam Hendriks is a career longman AAAA player up until this point in his career and has been horrible in every single high leverage inning he’s pitched over his career? He’s been a guy who gives up long hard flyball outs for his entire career, Jeff Francis is also a guy who outperformed his ERA this year with his FIP and we should all know he’s not a good pitcher and yet he’s a guy who was pitching in high leverage games this year.
Aaron Loup has looked horrible this year. That leaves the mighty two pitchers who’ve been successful for the Jays this year, one is a 20 year old who’s being used almost every night the starting staff doesn’t go 8 innings and Bret Cecil.
Guys pitch differently in high leverage then low leverage situations, there’s no quantifying it, it’s a thing that just happens and will continue to happen.
Liam Hendriks is fine as a 6th inning guy; I agree he shouldn’t be in high leverage situations, but his increased velocity has led to increased effectiveness. He’s more than deserving of a spot in the rotation.
I agree 100%. Perfectly fine spot start/long inning guy that could keep you in the game down 3-4 runs.
Why not give Osuna a shot. He seems to have the right mentality for a closer and has the pitches to do it with as well.
and Soriano is a cub