Blue Jays Outright Yariel Rodriguez

The Blue Jays are outrighting Yariel Rodriguez off their 40-man roster, according to Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith and Shi Davidi.  Reporter Francys Romero had the news earlier this afternoon that Rodriguez was being designated for assignment, though the Sportsnet item clarifies that Rodriguez wasn’t DFA’ed, but has already cleared outright waivers.

It isn’t yet known if this is tied to any upcoming roster move.  A 40-man roster spot wasn’t immediately needed for the Jays, as the club has only 38 players on their current 40-man.  Cody Ponce’s three-year contract has yet to be officially announced, but once that deal is complete, the Jays will now still retain two vacancies on their 40-man with Rodriguez now apparently on his way out.

It’s a somewhat surprising move on paper, as Rodriguez had a 3.08 ERA over 73 innings out of Toronto’s bullpen in 2025, and he received some high-leverage work in a set-up role in the earlier part of the year.  He was also included on the Blue Jays’ rosters for both the ALDS and ALCS, and he was charged with three earned runs over 2 2/3 innings of work before being left off the World Series roster.

The 3.08 ERA was seemingly a positive step forward from the 4.47 ERA that Rodriguez posted over 86 2/3 innings as a starting pitcher in 2024 (his first season in the majors), though a look under the hood reveals some pretty similar peripherals.  Rodriguez’s 22.1% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate in 2025 were both a tick backwards from his 2024 statistics.  After posting a 4.46 SIERA that almost matched his ERA, there was a much larger gap between the righty’s 3.08 ERA and 4.27 SIERA in 2025, as Rodriguez was aided by a .228 BABIP and an 81.2% strand rate this past season.

Two seasons of middling strikeout rates and hefty walk totals left the Blue Jays ready to move on from the right-hander, less than two years after Rodriguez signed a five-year, $32MM free agent contract.  $17MM remains on that contract, in the form of a $5MM salary in 2026, $6MM in 2027, and then a $6MM player option for 2028 or (if Rodriguez does opt out), a $10MM club option that the Jays can exercise to retain him for the 2028 campaign.

Unsurprisingly, no team was willing to claim away this remaining contract on waivers, and thus Rodriguez has now been outrighted off the 40-man.  He is still in the Toronto organization, as Rodriguez doesn’t have the necessary service time or a past outright on his resume that he would need to give himself the ability to decline the outright assignment in favor of free agency.  This means that the Blue Jays could still select Rodriguez’s contract back to the 40-man at any point, whether in the offseason or during the 2026 campaign.

However, the outright clearly puts Rodriguez in line as something of a secondary option within Toronto’s bullpen plans, and likely makes him a trade candidate for the remainder of the winter.  While no team was going to eat all of that $17MM deal, the Jays could explore (or continue exploring, as they’ve surely checked around about trade possibilities) moving Rodriguez as part of a swap of unwelcome contracts, or the Jays could eat a significant chunk of the $17MM to help accommodate a trade.

It has already been a busy offseason for the Blue Jays, who have signed Ponce and Dylan Cease to multi-year contracts, and Shane Bieber is also staying in the rotation after declining to opt out of the final year of his deal.  This puts the Jays in line for approximately a $267.9MM payroll and a $282.5MM luxury tax number (projections courtesy of RosterResource), and this is before Toronto addresses its lineup or bullpen needs heading into the 2026 campaign.

The four largest payrolls in Blue Jays history have come in each of the last four seasons, as ownership has been willing to foot increasingly large bills on the both the salary and tax fronts.  The Blue Jays paid the luxury tax in both 2023 and 2025, and their current 2026 projection already has them just shy of the $284MM tax threshold and the third penalty tier.

Given how the Jays have already signed Cease and have been linked to many other big names this offseason (i.e. Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger, and old friend Bo Bichette), clearly more spending is still to come.  That said, only the front office knows exactly what the budget actually is, and trimming some excess salary like Rodriguez could free up some extra dollars that could be put towards some higher-ceiling talent.  The fact that Toronto has two open 40-man roster spots heading into the Winter Meetings is perhaps a hint that the Jays might be anticipating another new acquisition sooner rather than later.