The Blue Jays have released reliever Erik Swanson, reports MLBTR’s Steve Adams. Toronto designated him for assignment last Tuesday. Swanson has already gone unclaimed on waivers and is a free agent.
Swanson spent two-plus seasons with the Jays. Acquired from the Mariners in the Teoscar Hernández trade, the righty had an excellent first season north of the border. Swanson turned in a 2.97 ERA while leading the team with 29 holds across 66 2/3 innings in 2023. That followed a sterling 1.68 ERA showing in his final season with Seattle. He hasn’t maintained that production over the past couple seasons, at least in part due to injury.
The 31-year-old Swanson missed a couple weeks early last season with forearm inflammation. He wasn’t effective when he returned and spent a couple months on optional assignment to Triple-A Buffalo. He looked to be trending towards a non-tender until finding some positive momentum in the second half. Swanson was recalled not long after the All-Star Break and managed a 2.55 ERA with a .172 opponent batting average down the stretch.
Toronto retained Swanson on a $3MM arbitration salary. That would’ve been a bargain if he repeated his second half numbers. Injuries again intervened. Swanson missed the first two months battling a nerve issue in his throwing arm. He was activated on June 1 but allowed runs in four of his six appearances, including three-plus runs in each of his final two outings. His average fastball speed has dropped a tick to 92.9 MPH and he has given up nine runs with five walks and three strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings.
The Jays will remain on the hook for the rest of Swanson’s salary. He wouldn’t cost a new team anything other than a roster spot. They’d pay only the prorated portion of the $760K league minimum for any time he spends on the MLB roster, which would be subtracted from Toronto’s responsibility. His 2022-23 production will at least generate interest on minor league offers, and it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if another team is willing to plug him directly into the MLB bullpen for the league minimum.
One good year for a reliever. Was Swanson overused? Not a great long term return for Hernandez.
There’s still Adam Macko. If he ever manages to turn into something, then it may still be an okayish trade.
If he never amounts to anything, then the Jays would have been better off with one decent year of Teo over one good year of a reliever, followed by a year and a half of awful.
Given the Jays (in)ability to develop pitching, lets just call this a swing and a miss.
I still would have taken Swanson’s 29 holds over Teo’s 108 ops+.
I hear what you’re saying. But Teo just sucked in Seattle. That year was an outlier and even looking at that year, his home/road splits tell the story that he did not hit well at Safeco(whatever it’s called now) Field. His away OPS+ split in 2023 was 128 and home was 71.
Their reliever reclamation projects all seem to break down shortly after being traded from Seattle, so I’d avoid trading with the Mariners
Trent Thornton doesn’t even out the reliever casualties between the two clubs? Hey we traded for an injured Yimi Garcia too and just got a handful of innings. Then there’s the Casey Lawrence loan-lease for mop-up duty. Fun fun! (And the Mariners are now in the midst of the Zach Pop experience.)
Relievers are like that whether you overuse them or not. There’s a reason they never get long contracts.
I’m assuming you mean one good year in Toronto? He had two good years in Seattle.
Come back to Seattle! I want him and topa back
Wouldn’t be the worst place for him to try to rebound.
“Jerry depoto on line 2…”