The Blue Jays had “at least preliminary interest” in Ryan Helsley before the right-hander signed with the Orioles, The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon reports. Toronto has shown past interest (both last offseason and at the trade deadline) in trading for Helsley when he was still a member of the Cardinals, so it tracks that the Jays would’ve again considered Helsley in free agency. As it turned out, the Blue Jays will now have to deal with Helsley pitching for a division rival while Toronto’s own search for bullpen help continues.
Such pitchers as Helsley, Raisel Iglesias, Phil Maton, Edwin Diaz, and Pete Fairbanks have been linked to the Jays thus far, and the first three of those names have already come off the board. Given how Ross Atkins’ front office is known for casting a wide berth in its free agent explorations, it’s probably safe to guess that the Jays have called about most or all of the top relievers on the market, ranging from set-up men to proven closers like Diaz. Atkins said after the season that the team was open to the possibility of moving Jeff Hoffman into a set-up role, thus opening the door for Toronto to seek out another top saves candidate.
Of course, the Jays’ biggest winter moves to date have come in the rotation, not the bullpen. Shane Bieber made the first move himself when he decided against opting out of the final year of his contract, and then the Jays made the priciest free agent signing in franchise history by inking Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210MM contract. Within less than a month after the end of the World Series, the Blue Jays rotation suddenly went from a question mark to all but settled.
The projected starting five looks like Cease, Bieber, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, and Jose Berrios, with Eric Lauer on hand as a swingman. Adam Macko, Ricky Tiedemann and Bowden Francis are further depth options. It’s a deeper group with a higher ceiling than the starting pitching mix that got the Jays to the World Series, though it’s possible another starter could still be added.
To make room in the rotation for a higher-caliber arm, the Jays could consider trading Berrios. Bannon (in a piece for the Athletic) and the Toronto Star’s Gregor Chisholm each floated the concept, as Berrios ended up being the odd man out of the starting mix even before a bout of elbow inflammation kept him sidelined for the Blue Jays’ entire playoff run. The Jays planned to transition Berrios to bullpen work prior to the postseason, and Berrios made all of one relief appearance before hitting the injured list.
Trading Berrios would be tricky for a few reasons — his eight-team no-trade clause, the three years and $66MM remaining on his contract, and the opt-out clause Berrios holds after the 2026 season. There’s also the fact that Berrios was pretty unspectacular in 2025, posting a 4.17 ERA and a set of below-average Statcast numbers across 166 innings. Any Berrios suitor would be counting on a bounce-back, naturally, but primarily might be interested in the veteran righty as a durable source of innings.
Berrios’ ability to eat innings makes him valuable to the Jays as well, considering how their pitchers added more mileage during an extended postseason run. Moving Berrios would open up some payroll space for Toronto as well, though in limited fashion. It’s pretty unlikely that the Jays would find a team willing to take the entirety of Berrios’ $66MM salary, plus spending capacity might not really be a concern for a Blue Jays club that already shown it is willing to stretch its payroll even further in search of a championship.
Turning to other topics from Chisholm’s mailbag piece, he believes the Blue Jays might’ve already finalized extensions for Atkins, team president Mark Shapiro, and manager John Schneider if the club hadn’t still been playing on November 1. Regardless, it just seems like a matter of time before the trio are all officially retained. Shapiro’s contract is already technically up, and Atkins and Schneider’s deals are up after the 2026 season (the Jays already exercised their club option on Schneider for 2026).
“have already off the board”
“Any Berrios would be counting on a bounce-back”
???
Ya get what you pay for 🙂
One would think that simple professionalism would prevent publishing sloppy copy
like this but I guess one would be wrong.
The term “professionalism” indicates that money is involved. How much are you paying for the service?
Of course there is money involved. These ads aren’t here because MLBTR just really likes these companies and wants to provide them a service.
We’re the product and not the customers (subscribers excluded.) The advertisers are the customers. It’s important to do quality work to attract more product you can sell to advertisers.
Berries is undervalued. He had never missed a start till last September and the injury was not severe. Teams need good second line guys to win titles.
His contract is pretty backloaded so he’s getting paid like a first line guy. He also has another 10mil in performance bonuses, which would be great if he earned them, but I don’t think he is going to earn what he gets paid the next three years.
A 3 year $68M contract is nowhere near ace money. It’s 3rd or 4th starter money. (The opt-out is after his cheapest year, and will only be used if he more than earns his 2026 salary, so it doesn’t change the calculation. And as you say, if he earns the bonuses he’ll be more than worth them.)
if the Dodgers proved anything, its that you can’t have enough pitching. the Jays have benefitted from amazing health of the rotation. Gausman, Berrios and Bassitt were all horses for the past 3 years. they can’t count on such run of health for their rotation – berrios is a good candidate for bounce back – that slurb plays
It does most of the time but when he’s not perfectly on his game he throws meatballs. Where a guy like Bassit you could always tell when he didn’t have it but he battled and usually managed to work through it.
This is true but from July on he was not good at all . April – June he was good but was relying on constant working out of jams – had a left on base rate of 80% . If it was just this season would be 1 thing , but he’s only a couple years removed from being one of the worst starters in MLB.
Have to assume moving him would be taking on a decent chunk of money , for not much return . Ross speaks so much about finding value , I would guess given he’s slotted for a back end rotation arm , they will feel it’s more valuable/ more upside to keep him and hope for a bounce back . assuming he’s fully healthy , there was some questions towards the end about his arm .
Ya his time in Toronto has been very hit or miss. He’s racked up in 4 of his 5 seasons a 1.5 to 2.5 war with the one really bad year in there. So was this year a blip like 22 or is Jose just gonna be a #5 inning type on a contender (or a #2-3 on a bad team lookin at you twins) from here on out
Please don’t look at the Twins, they don’t deserve the attention
What was Francis injury that landed him on the IL?
First rule of trade club. Don’t create a hole by filling a hole. Why trade Berrios if your going to have to acquire another SP to fill that hole you created?
Presumably they would have something lined up for a starter they felt was superior to Berrios before pulling the trigger.
@Jaysfansince92
Presumably is not a plan.
What are you talking about? I was talking about what their plan likely was. I don’t really get why you thought jumping on the word presumably was some sort of gotcha. They would obviously line something up first, otherwise there’s no point in trading him.
Francis was a shoulder impingement.
Lets not be cute. Keep berrios as it will likely cost more in the long run (paying down the contract and paying to replace him). Sign Bichette and 2 high leverage arm for the bullpen (someone like keller or fairbanks). Call it a day.
I agree with this , assuming he’s healthy worst case I think you have a 5 starter who will make 30 starts with upside in recent history of being a 3 – 3.5 true talent arm making 30 starts is valuable .
I agree about Bo…. If he’s willing to move to 2b . I would pay him more for this , to get max value out of both him and Gimenez as your everyday SS . Gimemez can afford to be a weak hitter playing SS everyday , tho given jays track record with bat to ball guys I do expect if he’s healthy to be closer to lg avg bat in 26
He hasn’t been a 3.4 win player in over half a decade unfortunately
Yeah, your 100% right – 3.6ish ERA with 180 and 190 innings both those years making 30 starts – if your 5 can give you anything resembling that your rotation is in a much stronger spot than most MLB teams . And I know under the hood metrics didn’t like him anywhere near his 3.6ERA number both years, suggesting regression was coming. For whatever reason the majority of Jose career he’s out performed his metrics . I probably mis spoke saying “true talent ” – but results wise he’s been probably a 3.5 ( true rotation spot I’m referring)
I feel the only way Berrios is leaving is because he wants to get traded.
The first 3 of those names are not off the board. Diaz hasn’t signed yet. The first two are off in Maton & Iglesias, but not the first three.
Helsley is also signed by the Orioles and the article stated that.
Yeah it read Helsley, Iglesias, Maton. All off the board.
I think fans should not be to quick to pencil Yesavage into the rotation as a regular for 30 plus starts. He has a total of 8 starts (9 games total) at the major league level.
I wonder if something happened during those games that is leading fans to think he can start a Monday game in April against the twins
I’m hoping he can handle the pressure!
Nobody is suggesting he shouldn’t start in the rotation funny man. Expecting 30 plus starts and post season is a hugh ask on an arm that does not have the innings. Not to mention the tole that will have on the future of that arm combine that with the shorter offseason this year due to the deep playoff run.
I think most fans understand that he will be on some level of an innings limit this year. Probably around 150-160.
That has absolutely nothing to do with his 8 mlb starts, but building up his arm from his total IP in ‘25, regardless of where those innings came from
Yes they will need to build his innings up and we agree on that but the fact you are focusing on the my use of 8 starts as a way of showing his little experience is kinda of petty. You yourself use starts as a quantifier of expectation for young pitchers in your lower post when referencing younger guys reliability of 30 starts or lack there off, in your defense of having a guy like Berrios.
“That in itself is valuable to a lot of teams that are light on depth or have young arms that can’t give them 30 starts.”
Ironically that was the logic of my original post.
As long as he doesn’t completely forget how to throw strikes, I think he’ll be fine. His stuff is just so nasty that batters are going to have a hell of a time squaring him up. 160 K in 98 innings in the minors. He doesn’t really have anything left to prove there.
I think youd have to pencil him in there. Whether, he stays there all year or not, is the question
At three years and $66 million Berrios isn’t that expensive as far as trades go. However, the opt-out after this season is a bigger hurtle than the 8 team no-trade list
He’s not opting out of that without a huge bounce back season. He was lucky the bottom line results looked so good this year
Yes and no he wouldn’t get the aav but I bet you a team would be willing to give him 70 million if he has an average Jose in Toronto season
His average Jose in Toronto season is a 4.5 FIP / 4.2 xFIP / 4.25 SIERRA
If you remove his lone anomalous good Toronto season in 2023, you’re looking at a 4.65 FIP / 4.3 xFIP / 4.3 SIERRA average season, good for 1 whole WAR per season who would be turning 33 shortly after the 2027 season started
Only way he’s getting $70M in that situation is winning a scratch-off
The xERA is even worse. But he’s outperformed those peripherals by a good margin fairly consistently. Would a team believe there’s something real that allows him to do that and pay him for the surface level results? Probably not on the ERA alone, but there’s enough track record of consistent overperformance in his career for teams to dig in looking for an explanation. And if they can find a plausible one, they might value him more than all the Statcast blue suggests they should.
You are greatly underestimating the value of taking the ball every 5 games.
That in itself is valuable to a lot of teams that are light on depth or have young arms that can’t give them 30 starts.
It sure if that was a response to me Dusty. I was looking simply at the run prevention within that context.
But to your point, I think the value in taking the ball every five games only matters if the team wants you to. The Jays valued that trait in Tanner Roark to the tune of $24m over two years and poor “Diesel” didn’t understand why they weren’t letting him pitch deep into games. They gave him all of 7 innings of leash to start the second year of that deal. Patrick Corbin took the ball every five days and he got a little over a million bucks when he hit free agency. Had himself a nice season on that deal and is probably going to get a raise too. But not a $66m guarantee.
Personally, I agree with you though. I’m not in a rush to be one injury away from Adam Macko making starts.
Yeah wasn’t responding to you, you can never really tell on these boards. Agree with you.
From Steve Adams today:
“would Berrios match the remaining three years and $66MM on his contract? He’d be hard-pressed to do so”
“Berrios’ contract is underwater”
Do wonder about Bieber not opting out. Hope he does think he has an issue. Would have Brought back .Bassitt or Scherzer.. If Bieber left. I would not trade Berrios unless someone wants to offer something crazy.
I thought Diaz was still available? The article says he is off the board.
johns-11: No, it says Helsley, Iglesias, and Maton are off the board.
I don’t think the starting depth is so good that you could subtract Berrios easily. Lauer might be an overqualified 6th. But beyond that, the article is naming Macko and Tiedemann who don’t look like starters at all. Neither has thrown enough strikes in the upper minors. Macko moved to relief last year and is entering his last option year while Tiedemann hasn’t pitched like a starter since ‘22 and didn’t pitch last year. Francis is a fine AAA depth option but he didn’t get back onto a rehab assignment before the end of the season either. They’ll need to trade for upper minors starting pitching which is hard to get unless you are giving up major leaguers or sign some minor league free agent options.
If you subtract Berrios, it certainly can’t be to reunite with Scherzer. Even Bassitt would seem like a waste of resources unless you could really offload all of Berrios’ contract.
Jays just holding out for Edwin Diaz.
Not sure why we need to upgrade now. Berrios as a 5th is a great place to be in. Let’s sign Bo and get a high leverage reliever and we’re good. World Series 26 here we come!
Probably less about an upgrade and more about moving some money from the rotation in to the lineup.
You don’t need a 20million dollar #5 starter or worse, swing man
My gut is telling me, Berríos will be traded, it seemed he was not a team player when asked to hit the bullpen.
I think they will get Imai, and next season they will have 3 starters for a few years and then fill the holes
It was also interesting that he wasn’t with the jays in the postseason.
Berrios is a workhorse and needed in this rotation. I would like to see a consideration to see if Scherzer would look at a closer role. He has the right mentality and stuff
Rotation is dirty with both long term and short term pieces, lineup is dirty with young talented players who actually understand the game of baseball and I’m sure they are going to sign/trade for a proven closer to put a bow on it all.
Congratulations Toronto…the division and possibly AL is yours for years to come. I think it’s going to be a hell of a run the next 3-5 years.
I’m an old Yankees fan — pre-1977 when Jays were hatched, and I appreciate your comment — Berrios should be kept, and the Jays should bring back Scherzer and Bassitt for primarily BP work (but also to fill in starts if/when injuries). Add Diaz and bring back Bo and the band is back together. These players plus a few new lads from the farm will be enough to win some play-off games again, and maybe the whole enchilada.
While I’m at it, does anyone else believe a Great Lakes winter ball league in domes in Milwaukee, Toronto, St. Louis, Montreal (when revamp finished), Detroit (Ford Field using a shoehorn), Expanding the geographic coverage could add teams in Texas and Arizona…
That would be pretty cool if they could swing a winter dome league but I imagine Taylor Swift generates more more money. I’m all for baseball off the beaten path though. Some of the coolest environments I’ve been to have e been rural like the cape cod league and some colleges throughout Maryland. I have Japanese baseball on the bucket list too.
“…the Blue Jays will now have to deal with Helsley pitching for a division rival.”
Given Helsley’s performance last season, this is not necessarily a bad thing.
“Naturally” should START the sentence, not come in the middle between commas.