Blue Jays Looking For Bullpen Upgrades

The deadline is now just a few days away and the Blue Jays are “turning over every stone” in the relief market, reports Mitch Bannon of The Athletic. It’s not a surprising target for the club. The Jays have the best record in baseball at 63-43, putting them clearly in the buyer camp. Contending clubs almost always add a few bullpen arms prior to the deadline.

Toronto’s bullpen hasn’t been awful this year. Their relievers have a collective 3.66 earned run average, which is seventh-best in the majors. Still, there’s room for improvement. In the past month, they’ve lost Yimi García, Nick Sandlin, Ryan Burr and Paxton Schultz to the injured list, cutting into the overall depth.

Jeff Hoffman has a 4.78 ERA in his first season as a full-time closer. A lot of that is due to a really bad stretch in the month of May, however. He has a flat ERA of 3.00 since the start of June. Perhaps the Jays could look to get a more established closer and bump Hoffman into a setup role.

Or if they’re fine with Hoffman as the closer, they could simply add talented arms regardless of closing experience. Just strengthening the whole group is obviously beneficial for the stretch run and playoffs. They have a couple of guys with options who could end up back in Triple-A Buffalo, such as Mason Fluharty or Justin Bruihl. Also, Chad Green has a 4.85 ERA and 18.6% strikeout rate, so he might not have a firm grip on a roster spot. He is making $10.5MM this year but is an impending free agent.

There are many different ways the Jays could go about upgrading the bullpen. There are dozens of candidates to be traded in the next few days. MLBTR recently highlighted many of them in our Top 50 list.

Closers such as Ryan Helsley, David Bednar and Jhoan Durán are thought to be available, though to varying degrees. Helsley is an impending free agent on a Cardinals team which seems to be leaning towards selling. Bednar is controllable for an extra year but his up-and-down performance in recent years will likely prompt the Pirates to cash in. Durán is likely far less available, as he’s controllable for another two years after this one. It’s possible the whole market has been impacted by the recent Emmanuel Clase news. There are plenty of other arms out there as well, including Dennis Santana, Pierce Johnson, Danny Coulombe and more.

Toronto’s talks with other clubs will naturally be impacted by the asking prices. The Jays came into the season with a farm system that was ranked in the bottom third of the league. They have had some positive developments with their prospects this year but it’s still not one of the strongest systems in the majors.

If they want to reduce the prospect cost of their acquisitions, they could agree to take on more salary. The Jays have cranked up the payroll in recent years. In the most recent offseason, they took on the contracts of Andrés Giménez and Myles Straw from the Guardians, bolstering the roster without surrendering prospect capital. RosterResource estimates that the club currently has a competitive balance tax number of $278MM, which is just below the third threshold of $281MM. If the Jays end up on the other side of that line, their top pick in the 2026 draft will be pushed back ten spots.

President of baseball operations Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins are both nearing the ends of their respective contracts, with Shapiro’s expiring after 2025 and Atkins’ after 2026. The Jays have made the playoffs a few times in recent years but been quickly eliminated each time. Last year, they had a Murphy’s Law season and finished in the A.L. East basement. Due to all those reasons, the Jays could try something bold in the coming days. That could be in the bullpen but the Jays have also been connected to starters such as Dylan Cease, Zac Gallen and Mitch Keller.

Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images