The Blue Jays are among the teams with interest in free agent closer Raisel Iglesias, reports Francys Romero. That’s a logical fit with Toronto on the hunt for a late-game arm. They’ve also been linked to Edwin Díaz at the top of the relief market.
Iglesias remains one of the better relievers in MLB as he enters his age-36 season. The Cuban-born righty is coming off a 3.21 earned run average in 67 1/3 innings for the Braves. Iglesias went 29-34 in save chances, narrowly missing what would have been his sixth career 30-save campaign. Iglesias punched out an above-average 27.4% of opponents while limiting walks to a 6% clip. He got swinging strikes nearly 15% of the time while still getting opponents to frequently chase outside the strike zone.
In aggregate, this year was Iglesias’ worst since at least 2019. That’s mostly attributable to an early-season home run spike. He gave up seven longballs before the end of May and carried a near-6.00 ERA into June. Once he got the home runs in check, Iglesias looked like his usually excellent self. He turned in a 1.96 ERA with a 29.3% strikeout percentage over the final four months. Opponents hit .163/.224/.219 with one homer in their last 174 plate appearances.
Jays general manager Ross Atkins has already said they’re not committed to keeping Jeff Hoffman in the ninth inning. Signing a closer would allow manager John Schneider to use Hoffman as a multi-inning leverage arm earlier in games. Hoffman allowed the second-most home runs (15) among MLB relievers this year. The longball is the biggest concern with Iglesias as well but not to the same extent.
Iglesias’ age is going to cap him at a maximum of two years. He should command an eight-figure annual salary. The Braves didn’t find much trade interest with Iglesias making $16MM this past summer. He elevated his stock by allowing just one run in 23 2/3 frames after the deadline, so it’s not out of the question that he commands something similar to this year’s salary on the open market. That’d especially be true if he takes a one-year guarantee, though MLBTR predicted he’d command a two-year contract at $13MM annually.
The Dodgers are the only other team that has been publicly connected to Iglesias this offseason. The Braves don’t have an obvious closing replacement and will probably stay in touch, but president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said this week that they’re focused on shortstop and the rotation in the short term. If Iglesias receives strong two-year offers this month, he could sign elsewhere before the Braves are ready to pivot to the bullpen.
“Jays general manager Ross Atkins has already said they’re not committed to keeping Jeff Hoffman in the ninth inning.” The broken watch has spoken.
Two years seems right. My concern is a “ambitious” team will go 3.
Can we just save a whole lot if time and state that the Blue Jays have interest in everybody.
I’m having “internal discussions” about Giselle Bundchen even as we speak.
That’s always the case – BUT – We hope that he’s in a closing mood and signs someone early, so we don’t miss-out on everyone
To all the relievers they’ve loved before….
The rich teams are “interested” in everyone because it’s advantageous for players’ agents for teams to think the moneybags are interested in their guys. All these rumors come from agents.
The Jays aren’t just rich they were 1 game away from a championship. My guess is they are one of if not the most active teams in all of free agency.
They were one timely hit or fly ball from a championship.
Raisel Eh-glasias
Too inconsistent. If the Jays want someone coming off a down year go after Devin Williams.
Iglesias is about as consistent as it gets
Jays, Yankees and Dodgers show interest in every player lol
Too old and recently inconsistent. I wouldnt want to spend big money on him. I like williams more, depending on cost. Then again, im not really confident in most of the closers in free agency other than diaz.