The Blue Jays have selected the contracts of right-hander Austin Voth and left-hander Joe Mantiply. Right-hander Lazaro Estrada and left-hander Brendon Little were optioned to the minors to make room for the pair on the active roster, while right-hander Cody Ponce and outfielder Anthony Santander were moved to the 60-day injured list.
Voth, 34, spent the early days of his career as a starting pitcher and swing man for the Nationals but last pitched in the majors as a member of the Mariners’ bullpen back in 2024. He spent last season overseas pitching for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines, and posted a respectable 3.96 ERA in 125 innings of work across 22 starts. Prior to that, he had spent the previous few seasons in Seattle and Baltimore. He posted a solid 3.68 ERA with a 4.23 FIP in his 178 2/3 combined innings with the two clubs while working as a long relief arm. He struck out 22.1% of his opponents while walking 7.7%. He’s made just one appearance so far for Triple-A Buffalo after signing with the Jays on a minor league deal, but now he’ll be called upon to help eat innings in the team’s bullpen.
Mantiply, meanwhile, steps into Little’s role as a lefty middle relief arm for the Jays. Toronto’s late-inning mix is dominated by right-handers, with Louis Varland, Tyler Rogers, and Jeff Hoffman serving as the club’s three highest leverage arms. That leaves the Jays to carry a pair of lefty middle relief arms to play matchups with throughout the game. Those spots went to Mason Fluharty and Little to open the year, but Little’s disastrous start to the year (24.55 ERA in five appearances) led the club to make a change. Mantiply has parts of eight MLB seasons on his resume, most of which came as a member of the Diamondbacks. From 2021 to ’24, the lefty was a key piece of the Arizona relief corps and posted a 3.63 ERA with a 2.96 FIP across 236 outings. His age-34 season last year saw him struggle badly in his limited work, however, as he surrendered five home runs in just 9 2/3 innings of work. He’ll now look to put that rough year behind him and reclaim a key spot in a major league bullpen with Toronto.
As for Ponce and Santander, it’s hardly a shock to see them transferred to the 60-day IL. Ponce recently suffered an ACL sprain that’s expected to leave him sidelined for quite a while even if he doesn’t wind up requiring surgery. As for Santander, the switch-hitter underwent shoulder surgery that came with a five-to-six month recovery timeline back in February. Even as the veteran is now two months into that recovery window, he figures to remain out of commission for at least another 90 days. That’s well past the late-May date where his minimum stint would run out, so the move is purely procedural for him. Ponce can now be activated on May 30 at the earliest, but he too seems likely to be sidelined for quite a bit longer than that at this point.
Kind of surprised Voth got the call up over Yariel Rodriguez just considering his below average year in Japan last year but I guess his decent big league track record gave him the edge.
He got wrecked in the Spring Training and struggling with a command in Buffalo
Which probably means an opt-out date was coming and the Jays decided to give him a chance
Ponce to the 60. Oooff. Santander was expected.
Expected this. ACL sprains take a while, no point in keeping him on the 15 day.
Time to trade for some quality arms or will only be in wild card race.
Doubt anyone is looking to trade right now. It’s too early in the season.
For the time being, they’ll have to hope for solutions from within.
Berrios, bieber, yeasavage and Garcia will be back in the next 4-6 weeks
Orioles are probably looking for arms too with the injury to Eflin and to improve their bullpen
Are you being ironic? Wild card race would be a huge success for Toronto this year.
Brendan Little – perhaps my most disliked Blue Jay pitcher since Josh Towers. Tanner Roark was also up there.
Its an Easter miracle, somebody on the Blue Jays staff finally woke up & sent that train wreck Little to the minors. I hope he can put in the work & turn things around otherwise he should never see the 40 man roster again. I hope Jeff Hoffman is taking notes too.
Neverbe51 amen to that brother it’s about time they made that move I stated that comment to you earlier and you’re right Hoffman better pay attention or he’s next to get sent down but I think he has enough time where he can reject being sent down unless the Jays get his consent and as far as Santander’s situation we should cut bait with him and eat that contract from the very beginning I knew it was a bad signing IMO
Btw happy Easter to you and everyone else who post a comment here
If this were about Xander it would be all about how everyone knew that contract was horrible when it was signed. No, this isn’t about X but with only a 104 Wrc+ in 25 and well on his way to missing significant time again in 26, along with being 33, a pattern is developing and it can’t be avoided.
Absolutely, LAD can afford it more than SD but that isn’t the point. The 2 contracts are very similar in that each team is going to pay a lot of money for an aging player well beyond his productive years.
Injuries suck and having the best players on IL is bad for all of baseball so, hurry back MB.
I think you meant to put your comment in the Mookie Betts post.
Thanks.
I thought someone put something in my coffee.
Yep. It started there and phone went wonky on me and it ends up here!
Thanks I thought I was in the middle of another acid flashback.
Little just looks shell shocked all the time now, like he’s still going through post season PTSD
What they need is a few guys who can hit the ball. Cant believe they thought this lineuo was going to be good enough.