The Blue Jays have signed left-hander Justin Bruihl to a minor league contract, according to Aram Leighton of Just Baseball Media. Bruihl elected minor league free agency at the end of the 2024 season, after he had been outrighted off the Pirates’ 40-man roster back in July.
Brendon Little is expected to be part of the Opening Day roster and Josh Walker is also competing for a bullpen job, but Easton Lucas and the injured Adam Macko are the only other southpaws on Toronto’s 40-man roster. Bruihl therefore adds a little more depth in that area, and this signing fairly late in camp might hint that the Jays aren’t entirely satisfied with their selection of left-handers. It would seem unlikely that Bruihl himself could make a late bid to break camp with the team since he is only now moving from his offseason preparations into a proper Spring Training ramp-up, so he’ll probably start the season with Triple-A Buffalo.
Bruihl has appeared in each of the last four MLB seasons, topping out at 28 innings with the Dodgers and Rockies in 2023 and with a low of just 5 2/3 frames with Pittsburgh last season. Overall, Bruihl has a 4.62 ERA, 15.9% strikeout rate, 46.2% grounder rate, and 7.9% walk rate across his 76 total innings in the big leagues.
His 26.55% strikeout rate over 211 1/3 career minor league innings is far higher than his lackluster K% in the majors, but Bruihl hasn’t been able to duplicate that bat-missing ability against big-league hitters. Bruihl might have been the type of pitcher who would’ve thrived before the three-batter rule was implemented, given his drastic career splits — left-handed batters had only a .507 OPS against Bruihl, while right-handed batters have a .918 OPS.
Dude is getting to be another Seth Martinez aka ‘the village bicycle; everybody’s had a ride.’
And is Macko had a knee injury that might keep him out all year I’m pretty sure
You are correct. Macao had surgery on his meniscus. It won’t keep him out for the whole year but he would be in a tough spot recovering and never pitching in the show.
You walk out of a meniscus surgery
Minor league depth piece only.
Your #scoutseyes are strong lol
The next frontier in bullpen construction isn’t finding traditional lefty specialists—it’s prioritizing righties with neutral splits or developing lefties who can survive against both sides. Bruihl’s signing reflects an outdated strategy in modern bullpen management. If the Blue Jays truly understood the evolution of pitching value, they’d be targeting dominant right-handers with reverse splits instead of grasping at traditional lefty specialists who are being phased out of the game.
Lol. Or they are just looking for an extra arm. Enough with the lectures.