The Blue Jays have agreed to a minor league contract with left-handed reliever Joe Mantiply, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. Toronto also recently inked utilityman Buddy Kennedy to a minor league pact after he was released by the Phillies. He’s already made his debut with their Triple-A affiliate.
Mantiply was released by the Diamondbacks in early June after struggling considerably early in the year. The 34-year-old has a nice track record and was an important piece of Arizona’s bullpen from 2021-24, tossing 198 1/3 frames with a 3.63 earned run average, 22% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 51.9% ground-ball rate. He picked up three saves and 50 holds over that four-year run.
That track record feels like a distant memory after Mantiply was rocked for a 15.83 ERA in 9 2/3 big league innings this season. He’s never been a hard-thrower, but Mantiply’s 88.2 mph average fastball in 2025 was well shy of its 91.3 mph peak or even last year’s 89.5 mph average. Mantiply has struggled both in the majors and in Triple-A this season; he was tagged for a 5.56 ERA in 11/3 innings with the Diamondbacks’ Reno affiliate.
The Jays already have a pair of lefties in the big league bullpen: Justin Bruihl and breakout setup man Brendon Little. A third southpaw, Mason Fluharty, was just optioned to Triple-A Buffalo late in the season’s first half. Bruihl is a minor league signee who was just selected to the big league roster a few weeks ago. Fluharty was excellent up into early June but was rocked for a dozen runs in a span of 7 1/3 innings before being optioned back to Buffalo.
Mantiply will add some left-handed depth beyond that trio. He’ll join Amir Garrett — also with the Jays’ Triple-A club — as a veteran lefty reliever with some track record hoping to earn a look in Toronto.
Kennedy has appeared in parts of four major league seasons between the D-backs, Tigers and Phillies, but he’s only tallied 157 plate appearances in that time. He’s a .193/.287/.296 hitter at the big league level but touts a nice .279/.388/.432 slash in just over 1600 Triple-A plate appearances. Kennedy has already taken eight plate appearances in Buffalo, going 0-for-7 with a walk. He’s primarily played second base and third base in pro ball but does have more than 400 innings at first base and 93 innings of left field work under his belt.
But can he do long division?
Nah just mantiplication tables.
Lol nice! Mantiply also sounds like a Pokémon.
It’s like they say, left-handed relievers don’t die, they Mantiply.
I use 3 ply.
If nothing else I think he could be an upgrade on Bruihl until bullpen reinforcements arrive be it through guys getting healthy or trade. His under the hood numbers have been pretty consistent up until this season.