The Blue Jays signed righty Austin Voth to a minor league contract after he was released by the White Sox at the end of camp. Toronto never formally announced anything, but Voth pitched three innings for their Triple-A club yesterday. He picked up a pair of strikeouts and didn’t walk anyone, but he was tagged for a pair of solo homers. Voth is represented by The·Team agency.
Voth, 33, spent the 2025 season in Japan pitching for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines. He logged 125 innings with a 3.96 earned run average, below-average strikeout rates and good command.
Voth has picked up more than five years of major league service time, dating back to his 2018 MLB debut. He’s a former fifth-round pick who’s pitched in part of seven big league seasons. In 360 1/3 innings as a major leaguer, Voth has a 4.70 ERA, a 22.1% strikeout rate and an 8.3% walk rate. Those are roughly league-average rate stats, and it bears mentioning that a good portion of Voth’s most prominent struggles came early in his career with the Nats. He has a 4.29 ERA over his past three big league seasons, including a tidy 3.69 ERA in 61 innings with the 2024 Mariners, for whom he set down one quarter of his opponents on strikes with a walk rate just north of 7%.
Though Voth has pitched more in relief than as a starter during his recent MLB stints, he has more experience in the rotation than in the bullpen. Last year in Japan, all 22 of his appearances were starts. He started yesterday for Buffalo, and while he only pitched three innings, that was surely in part to pretty limited usage in camp with the ChiSox. Given that the Jays currently have Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage and José Berríos on the injured list, it’s likely that Voth will continue to stretch out to serve as some experienced starting depth with the Jays’ top affiliate.
Sensible signing. They have starting depth stashed on the IL, but not really much in AAA that is likely to be back to full strength/workload soon.