The Blue Jays and left-hander Ryan Yarbrough are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. The Excel Sports Management client also receives an invite to spring training.
Yarbrough, 33, finished out the 2024 season with the Jays. Toronto flipped outfielder Kevin Kiermaier and cash to the Dodgers at last year’s deadline, with Yarbrough heading the other way in that deal. The southpaw filled a long relief role for the Jays after that swap, logging 31 1/3 innings over 12 appearances, allowing just 2.01 earned runs per nine.
The lefty doesn’t throw hard, averaging just 86.5 miles per hour on his fastball last year, but has carved out a big league career as a swingman mostly based on engineering soft contact from opponents. Over the past seven seasons, he has spent time with the Rays, Royals, Dodgers and Jays. He has appeared in 196 games, with only 68 of those technically being starts, though many of his relief outings have been lengthy appearances behind an opener.
Overall, he has a 4.21 ERA in 768 big league innings. His 18.7% strikeout rate is subpar but his 5.5% walk rate is very good. He has allowed an average exit velocity of 85.1 miles per hour, which is more than three ticks better than average. Statcast has put him in the 97th percentile or better in that category in each season of his career. His 28% hard hit rate is more than eight percentage points better than par. In that category, Statcast has put him in the 94th percentile in each season of his career.
The Blue Jays have four veterans locked into their rotation, with Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt each having spots. It seems likely that Bowden Francis will get a shot to be the fifth starter after he posted a 1.53 ERA in his final nine starts of the 2024 season. That could push Yariel Rodríguez, who started for the Jays last year, into a bullpen role. The Cuban righty previously had success as a reliever in Japan. However, Francis still has an option and could technically be sent to Triple-A to start the year.
In terms of depth, the Jays have Jake Bloss and Adam Macko on the 40-man roster, but Macko just underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and will be out for an undetermined amount of time. Eric Lauer and Adam Kloffenstein are in camp as non-roster invitees. Yarbrough will give the club a bit of extra non-roster depth for its staff and could perhaps earn a role as a long reliever out of the bullpen if his contract is selected.
Yarbrough is an Article XX(b) free agent since he has at least six years of major league service and finished the previous season on a 40-man roster or 60-day injured list. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, players in that camp who sign minor league deals more than ten days prior to Opening Day get uniform opt-outs. Those opt-out chances are five days before Opening Day, as well as May 1st and June 1st.
Good signing
Ya this was a long time coming. Jays have 0 lefties outta the pen and need another arm that can go a couple innings when Max, Gaus, Francis or bassiet can’t (not counting Berrios since he’s money for at least 5)
you do know that Bassitt and Gausman went 5 or more in 25 or 31 starts.
Now they need to go get Canario from Cubs as he was just DFA
Not sure why it took so long for him to sign
He had a good year last year
Not sure if I like him as a #1 lefty out of the pen
But as a 2nd option it fine
The same reason it has taken so long too sign guerrero
Too soon
There have been a few articles written about how much better our guys are with an extra days rest. It’s an old rotation for the most part. A six man rotation could make him an important piece, especially piggy backing Yariel if the others keep chugging.
End of season talk had him down as a priority to sign
Apparently if you don’t throw hard and don’t rack up strikeouts you can’t get a major league contract anymore, no matter how effective you are. Balls in play are all just luck, we’re told.
While he technically throws left handed, he’s not really a lefty out of the pen. He’s the swingman who takes a rotation spot as a bulk pitcher when you have an injury, and does multi-inning mop up meanwhile.
He also allows using Yariel Rodriguez in short relief because you don’t need Yariel to be the first swingman.
I appreciate your take on the subject. Curious ; were you surprised to see Genesis Cabrera walk? I’m still surprised he only got a minor league deal with The Mets.
Cabrera is somebody I never trusted. Too many control issues to bring into important spots. His WHIP last year was atrocious — 1.468. His ERA wasn’t bad but a reliever’s ERA can be pretty uninformative. He put up a negative WAR for 2024 and for his career. So I think he didn’t necessarily deserve a major league deal, unlike Yarbrough.
Every time there is a Jays article you are here crapping on the team. When the Yanks sign a minor league deal I don’t even bother reading the article let alone commenting on it. One would think you would have better things to do with your time.
This guy will end up pitching more innings this year than Scherzer
Nice pickup. Long relievers are vital now that starters only go 5 innings.
Soft tossing lefties get no love.
Good roll of the dice. #BlueJays
Good swing man out of the bullpen. Can spot start or work 3 or 4 innings in relief. Good move for the Jays
Seems like it should have happened long before this. He was good for the Jays last year.
Yarborough will never win any awards, but I enjoy watching his old school pitching style. He’s a pitcher, not a thrower.
This is not a bad signing by the Jays because it’s always good to have a “Thumber” on your pitching staff…in, out, up and down and just stay out of the middle, middle. He is the type of pitcher that has guys mumbling to themselves walking back to the dugout
Great signing by the Jays. I think his stats are a little misleading.
18-21 he was a really good starter for the rays, then he battled a bit.
Got a change of scenery to the bullpen and he’s been really good.
98.2 inn last year 65 SO.
I’m surprised that he didn’t get a full on contract from another club, unless he was really wanting to play for the jays.
Either way , I love this move by the club.
Adds a Lefty to the pen and also adds a potential long reliever in there.
Those 98.2 innings are 36 more than the Jays’ 2024 bullpen IP leader, Genesis Cabrera. That’s an enormous difference and speaks well of Yarbrough’s value to a pitching staff.
A lot of his innings were in pseudostarts — the “bulk” role. He was essentially in the rotation for a lot of the season, but it doesn’t show up as such because he always works behind an opener. Which is very valuable to a team — but shouldn’t really be compared with a reliever’s innings count.
I noticed that there is no mention of the salary promised to Yarbrough if he makes the team. It is nice that the team has the finances to attract some better minor league signings with the promise of a few more bucks then they would normally get if they make the team. No guaranteed bucks put out until you show me your worth it.
he was really good for the Dodgers I thought. while not a guy that blows anyone away he gets outs which is still the objective last I checked. was kind of bummed when we sort of dumped him for Kiermaier. surprised its a minor league deal since he’s clearly an mlb pitcher.
potentially the best signing Toronto made this offseason. Low risk , low cost.