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.
I think it’s hard to judge a trade by what the new teams got out of the players. It’s not guaranteed, probably not even likely, that the players would have put up identical stat lines had they stayed. Teo’s struggles with that particular home park were quite evident in the home/road splits. I wouldn’t have expected him to struggle had he stayed in Toronto where he always did quite well. Swanson was good for Toronto but on a granular level, some of the pitch characteristics declined immediately in Toronto. And they further declined in the subsequent years. Was that sure to happen, or was that a product of the lab/coaching etc. in Toronto being different than in Seattle? Then there’s the part where we just don’t know the story of Macko yet. Plus, we don’t really know what other trades were possible at the time. One would think there’d have been some win now teams interested in a year of Teo so other options were likely on the table.
Bertod is correct. Teoscar has another strong 2023 in a Jays uniform in his walk year. Seattle is a tough place to hit.
I dont get the Teo sucked in Seattle crowd. He batted .258 with 26 HRs and 93 RBIs. Those were the 2nd most RBIs in his career at that point. He struck out a ton but everyone on the M’s roster did that season. Seattle is much tougher place to hit then Toronto so some numbers dipped but he was pretty much in line with his career averages. I’d love to have the exact same version of Teo in Seattle’s lineup today.
slund it’s a bunch of Jays fans trying to rationalize and justify losing a bad trade.
@Canuckleball
A number of prospect sites have Mako’s upside as a long reliever. A dime a dozen player.
Canuckleball, you’re right that Macko really was a big part of the trade value and still has a part to play in how the trade is viewed. If he becomes something, then there’s more value in this trade. I will say though that one path to him providing value is passing him by. I think number 6 and 7 starters are sometimes overlooked and undervalued by fans though when your team doesn’t have them, starting pitching depth becomes a glaring weakness. Having guys in the minors stretched out and ready to step into a rotation role when needed is good value and while Macko can still be that, he’s exhausted two of his three option years already and hasn’t debuted yet. All while the team has struggled to cover innings.
Not an ok trade when you are a team (allegedly) going for a World Series and you dump your cleanup hitter for a soft-tossing bullpen arm and a young prospect that can’t find the plate. Based on the position the Jays want to be in, this was a total loss.
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.
He did not. Went to LA on a pillow contract after his FA year 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…”
The trade to make was Swanson for a couple minor leaguers, not your cleanup hitter when you are trying to win a World Series. When you do not have a viable replacement (think Delgado replacing Olerud or Olerud replacing McGriff), you could not make that trade. The Jays had to keep one of Teoscar or Gurriel, and trade the other. Not both. Not when you do not have AAA-ready hitters at the time ready to pump 25-30 bombs a year.