The Blue Jays are keeping Yariel Rodríguez stretched out as a starter going into Spring Training, general manager Ross Atkins told reporters (link via Keegan Matheson of MLB.com). “(He’ll) come in stretched out and compete for that fifth spot. He’ll remain depth for us, and we’ll make a decision about halfway or three-quarters of the way through Spring Training to try to put our pieces in the best positions to be successful,” Atkins said.
Toronto had looked to add a free agent starting pitcher throughout the offseason. After missing on long-term swings for Max Fried and Corbin Burnes, the Jays went short term to add Max Scherzer on a one-year, $15.5MM deal. The future Hall of Famer joins Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt as Toronto’s top four. The fifth spot is theoretically up for grabs between Rodríguez and Bowden Francis. Whomever doesn’t get the rotation spot could strengthen a bullpen that was a major weakness last season.
Francis should have the leg up in the camp battle. The 28-year-old righty was quietly dominant down the stretch. Toronto plugged Francis into the rotation around the time they dealt Yusei Kikuchi at last summer’s trade deadline. Francis fired 65 innings with a 1.80 earned run average across 11 appearances (10 starts) through season’s end. He held opponents to a .140/.188/.294 slash over 235 plate appearances. While some of that is due to an unsustainably low BABIP (.142), Francis also struck out a quarter of batters faced while keeping his walks to a minuscule 3.4% clip.
That was his first extended run as a major league starting pitcher. Francis posted a 1.73 ERA across 36 relief innings in 2023. He worked out of John Schneider’s bullpen for the first half of last season. Opponents blitzed him for a near-6.00 ERA behind a robust .276/.341/.481 line through the All-Star Break. Francis missed six weeks with forearm tendinitis and was briefly optioned to Triple-A before his fantastic second half.
Rodríguez, a Cuba native who previously pitched in NPB, signed a five-year contract with a $32MM guarantee last offseason. The 27-year-old started all 21 appearances during his first big league season. He posted a 4.47 ERA over 86 2/3 frames. Rodríguez punched out 23.1% of batters faced but walked nearly 11% of opponents. He missed six weeks with back inflammation and was optioned on and off the active roster a few times. Rodríguez made eight appearances with Triple-A Buffalo, where he turned in a 1.33 ERA with a strikeout rate pushing 38%.
The Jays reportedly cannot option Rodríguez to the minors without his approval anymore. Assuming the top four starters are healthy and Francis wins the fifth starter role, they’d presumably try to get Rodríguez multi-inning relief stints. That’d keep him reasonably stretched out in case they need to move him into the rotation in response to an in-season injury. Jake Bloss, acquired from the Astros in the Kikuchi trade, is next on the depth chart. Toronto has added Eric Lauer and Adam Kloffenstein on minor league deals. Alek Manoah is rehabbing Tommy John surgery and hopes to be back on the mound in August.
Adding Scherzer pushed the Jays’ luxury tax payroll to roughly $273MM (as calculated by RosterResource). That’s a franchise record that puts them within $8MM of the third tax tier — at which point their top pick in the 2026 draft would be dropped 10 slots. Atkins left open the possibility for a late-offseason acquisition, though he implied that they’re winding down on free agent activity.
“It’d be hard to add to the rotation at this point unless it’s just depth,” Atkins told reporters (including Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling). “On the position player group, if there’s a way to increase our depth, we’ll look to do that. I think at this point it would require a trade for us to add to the team. It doesn’t have to, but it most likely would be the case.”
The Jays have been on the periphery of the Alex Bregman market, though it seems the Astros, Tigers and Red Sox have been more heavily involved. Toronto was tied to Nick Pivetta before they signed Scherzer. There aren’t many other key players who remain unsigned, but the Jays could potentially bring in a veteran infielder on a minor league deal to factor into their third base competition.
He’s only gonna be 5th starter in case of injury which looking at that rotation will happen so might as well do all of spring as starter and if everything breaks right maybe do a 6 man rotation for the first few weeks
Well said. You are bang on.
I’m sorry; Why does it look like there will be injuries with this rotation? Hard to find a more durable trio than Gausman, Bassitt and Berrios. Max is obviously a risk at his age and based on last season, but he also has a long track record of staying on the field.
I would say Yariel being stretched out is a great insurance policy “in case” of injury. Easier to go to a bullpen slot from being stretched out than the reverse. Although the Jays sp’s are incredibly durable, it just takes one wrong step, so it is a good to be ready. I remember when Stroman was a young stud and blew his knee in spring training. You just never know and need to prepare for many situations.
Why would you expect this rotation to have injuries? Max is obviously a risk at his age, but he has a long history of being able to stay healthy. And it would be hard to find a more durable trio than Gausman, Bassitt and Berrios.
Being a Met fan I saw a lot of Max the last 2 seasons and aside from the 2-3 mph he lost off his fastball, his biggest problem are the injuries. Always something small that could lead to him blowing out his elbow. E.G. His back, blisters, sore hamstring. All little things that will keep him in the 15-20 start territory.
Having him starting through the last day of spring training should be automatic (plenty of B games to allow for it, and I don’t buy that he needs time to re-adjust to relief, especially if used in multi-inning situations where there’s plenty of time to warm up). But I don’t like unnecessarily using a 6 man rotation to make room for a mediocre starter, it taxes your bullpen in multiple ways (lost roster spot and short outings) and the object of the game is to have a good chance to win every day.
If Francis didn’t earn a rotation spot based on his second half last season, then I’m not sure what else the man can do. He literally put together a historical run.
You never know with an inexperienced pitcher. All he has to do in spring training is show that he resembles who he was the second half of last year, rather than who he was the first half of last year. If he doesn’t get hammered, the spot is his.
Gotta be one of the worst high salary teams of all time.
273 mil for a wild card at best team that has no depth in any positions lol
It’s not your money so stfu about it. We should want more teams spending money not less.
Shark as usual you come here with no argument and the opinion of a teenager who’s been bullied for too long.
Yes I’m aware it’s not my money, this isn’t an argument that the jays should spend less, it’s a criticism for how poorly they have spent their money.
I get you have blind faith and optimism around the jays, it’s cute actually, but stop being such a complete tool about it.
Dusty you come on here and whine every day based on your own opinions, not facts.
Who thought the DBacks would make it to the world series? I bet you thought they were also a wild card team at best. So sit back down and stfu
My goodness you suck at this. I really am starting to believe this is really atkins because your posts are about as good as you would expect from a bottom 5 GM in the league.
Diamondbacks payroll for their unlikely Cinderella run in 2023 was 116 mil. lol
So your immature and cheap opinion is based on 1 rare example of not great team getting hot at the right time and even in that example it’s it no way comparable.
I’m done arguing with you, you have the IQ of a pencil. You believe so much in this Jays front office because you like to cheer for losers, guess you see yourself in that.
Dusty cry more about it. Not every team can sign Ohtani or Soto so if we’re being honest I guess every team spent their money poorly this off-season except a couple. Jackhole
It’s not uncommon at all. At the end of their run of contention, good teams turn into high payroll bad old teams because they’ve exhausted the farm with trades and you can’t get younger through free agency. It’s just unfortunate that the window was so short and the postseason performances dismal in this case.
Anyway, I’d be more than thrilled (and alas very surprised) with a wildcard this season. Anybody in the playoffs can win it all.
Couldnt agree with you more, Dusty. Their dumb front office spent $30M on this pitcher, which is just a small part of their bloated payroll, but it all adds up. He cant start, he doesnt have the stuff to be any kind of reliever. He’s good for about 60 pitches on a good day.
You do realize Yariel Had to take a year off pitching due to rules and such before he could be signed by a MLB team. Last year was not his best effort. He was very rusty and lacking stamina, as any player would after a year of not playing.
He was highly touted prior to signing with the Jays. It’s not as if they payed some scrub $30m to fill a roster spot. He was seen as a legit ‘prospect’. They knew year one was just a warmup.
This season will be a truer test of his abilities.
WC is a long shot
Biggest payroll ever. and We still have 2 Clowns in the FO…..Disgusting !!
Welcome ro the A.L. East basement again….
I’m not always one to lavish praise on Toronto, but I think they beat expectations this offseason. My bingo card had them buying high on Bregman’s decline, and if they actually end up avoiding doing that they’ll have beat the street.
Offer Bregman 15m bonus 25m3yr15m4yr50m deferred over 10y
200m7yr.If he says no walk away
Y is for Yariel. And YOLO