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The Best Fits For Tatsuya Imai

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Decision time nears for Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai. He needs to finalize a contract with an MLB team by Friday at 4:00 pm Central if he's to make the move stateside this year. There's no indication that he's considering sticking with the Seibu Lions, meaning an agreement should be imminent. While there's a little over 48 hours to make the deal official, Imai must agree to terms with enough margin to complete a standard physical.

The 27-year-old (28 in May) is conducting in-person meetings with interested teams in Los Angeles this week. The 5’11” righty has been one of Japan’s best pitchers over the past two seasons. He’s coming off a 1.92 ERA showing with 178 strikeouts across 163 2/3 innings. Imai has an NPB-best 27% strikeout rate since the start of 2024. He sits in the mid-90s with a promising slider. Command was an issue earlier in his career, but his strike-throwing has progressed as he has gained experience. This past season’s 7% walk rate was a personal low and better than the MLB average.

Whichever team that signs Imai will owe a release fee to the Lions. That’s proportional to the contract value: 20% of the first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of all further spending. Imai isn't expected to come close to the $325MM deal that Yoshinobu Yamamoto commanded two offseasons ago. He's a few years older and simply not as good. Yet it's generally believed that he'll command a nine-figure guarantee, perhaps into the $150MM range, from a team that feels he's a mid-rotation arm.

Which clubs are best positioned to make that investment? Salary projections are courtesy of RosterResource.

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Each Team’s Free Agent Activity So Far

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The New Year serves as a symbolic halfway point of the offseason. It has been just under two months since the Dodgers came back in Toronto to repeat as World Series champions. We’re exactly six weeks away from pitchers and catchers beginning to report to Spring Training.

Twenty eight of MLBTR’s top 50 free agents have come off the board, though most of the marquee names remain. Seven of the top 10 are unsigned. We’re less than two days away from resolution on #7 free agent Tatsuya Imai, whose posting window closes on Friday afternoon. The overall volume of free agent activity is similar to last offseason, when 26 of our top 50 players were off the board on New Year’s Eve. However, a lot of last winter’s early activity was concentrated at the top of the market, as five of our top six free agents had signed before the close of December. Dylan Cease and Munetaka Murakami are the only two of our top eight who have signed so far this offseason.

Using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker (a tool available to Front Office subscribers), we can find every team’s free agent activity thus far. Players who accepted the $22.025MM qualifying offer are treated as free agent signings. Four contracts negotiated between the end of the regular season and November 6 — the Guardians’ deal with Austin Hedges, Baltimore’s signing of Dietrich Enns, the Royals’ deal with Salvador Perez, and the Cubs’ contract with Colin Rea — are excluded. Those all came before those players were permitted to speak with other teams and are thus extensions rather than free agent contracts.

As always, this is not meant as an exhaustive look at a team’s offseason activity. The Royals (Maikel Garcia) and Athletics (Tyler Soderstrom) have each signed a significant contract extension. The Red Sox are one of two teams that has yet to sign an MLB free agent contract, but they’ve taken on nearly $40MM in 2026 salary via trades for Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Johan Oviedo. This is strictly a look at what teams have so far accomplished through free agency.

For this exercise, we’ll take the total amount even if the contract includes deferred money. Teams are ordered by overall spending.

1. Toronto Blue Jays

Total guarantees: $277MM

2. Baltimore Orioles

Total guarantees: $195.1MM

3. Philadelphia Phillies

Total guarantees: $182MM

4. New York Mets

Total guarantees: $113MM

5. Atlanta Braves

Total guarantees: $106.25MM

6. Seattle Mariners

Total guarantees: $99.75MM

7. San Diego Padres

Total guarantees: $91.2MM

8. Los Angeles Dodgers

Total guarantees: $74.5MM

9. Detroit Tigers

Total guarantees: $59.025MM

10. Chicago Cubs

Total guarantees: $53.525MM

11. Chicago White Sox

Total guarantees: $50.5MM

12. Arizona Diamondbacks

Total guarantees: $50.25MM

13. Pittsburgh Pirates

Total guarantees: $36.75MM

14. San Francisco Giants

Note: Salary terms on San Francisco’s one-year deal with Tyler Mahle remain unreported. Once finalized, that’ll likely push them into the mid-$30MM range. Their placement above the Yankees assumes Mahle’s guarantee is north of $4MM.

Total guarantees: More than $25.4MM

15. New York Yankees

Total guarantees: $29.025MM

16. Cincinnati Reds

Total guarantees: $25.9MM

17. Tampa Bay Rays

Total guarantees: $25MM

18. Milwaukee Brewers

Total guarantees: $22.025MM

19. Texas Rangers

Total guarantees: $20.625MM

20. Miami Marlins

Total guarantees: $15MM

21. Los Angeles Angels

Total guarantees: $12.95MM

22. St. Louis Cardinals

Total guarantees: $12.5MM

23. Cleveland Guardians

Total guarantees: $7.9MM

24. Minnesota Twins

Total guarantees: $7MM

25. Kansas City Royals

Total guarantees: $6.15MM

26. Washinton Nationals

Total guarantees: $5.5MM

27. Houston Astros

Total guarantees: $3.95MM

28. Athletics

Total guarantees: $2.85MM

T-29. Boston Red Sox/Colorado Rockies

Total guarantees: $0

  • Boston and Colorado have yet to sign a free agent to a major league deal this offseason.

Kona Takahashi’s Posting Window Nearing Conclusion

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Most of the focus this week has been on the concluding posting windows for NPB stars Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto. They’re not the only two Japanese free agents whose situations will be resolved within the next few days. Right-hander Kona Takahashi will also need to sign this week if he’s going to make the jump to MLB this offseason.

As MLB.com’s Brian Murphy noted at the time, Takahashi was formally posted by the Seibu Lions on November 21. That’s the same date as Okamoto’s posting. Both players have until Sunday, January 4 at 4:00 pm Central to sign. Imai was posted two days earlier, so his 45-day window closes on Friday afternoon.

Imai and Okamoto are reportedly meeting with clubs in Los Angeles this week. There’s little doubt that both players are going to sign before the end of their posting deadlines. That’s less clear with Takahashi, who doesn’t have nearly the same swing-and-miss upside that Imai brings to the table. Takahashi struck out only 14.3% of batters faced across 24 starts in 2025. He has never recorded a strikeout rate higher than 20% in an NPB season.

Takahashi is headed into his age-29 season. He has been an effective control artist in Japan, walking fewer than 7% of batters faced in consecutive seasons. He posted a 3.04 earned run average over 148 innings last year and owns a 3.39 mark over parts of 11 NPB campaigns. James Fegan and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote in October that Takahashi projected as a fifth starter in MLB. FanGraphs grouped him alongside Anthony Kay and Foster Griffin in that tier. Kay went on to sign a two-year, $12MM deal with the White Sox. Griffin signed a one-year deal at $5.5MM with Washington.

A Japanese-language report from Sanspo in the middle of December indicated that Takahashi’s camp was in contact with three unnamed teams. It’s not known if he has received any MLB offers, nor is it clear that Takahashi would make the move to affiliated ball if teams are only willing to put minor league proposals on the table. If he doesn’t sign with an MLB club, he’d remain with the Lions.

Alexander Canario Signs With NPB’s Seibu Lions

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The Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball announced the signing of outfielder Alexander Canario earlier this month. He had been non-tendered by the Pirates at the end of the season.

Canario, 25, heads overseas for the first time in his career. A notable prospect during his time in the Cubs system, he plateaued in the upper minors because of increasing strikeout concerns. Canario never got much of a big league look in Chicago and bounced around a bit last winter. The Cubs traded him to the Mets in February. New York designated him for assignment on Opening Day and flipped him to Pittsburgh for cash considerations.

The Bucs kept the out-of-options Canario on their roster all season. He played in a little over half their games and tallied a career-high 234 plate appearances. Canario struggled to a .218/.274/.338 slash while striking out 80 times (34.2%). Among hitters with 200+ trips to the dish, only Luke Raley, Gabriel Arias, Michael A. Taylor and Christopher Morel swung and missed more frequently. Canario graded well defensively in his 521 innings split between the three outfield spots, but the lack of offense and roster flexibility led the Bucs to drop him.

Canario takes a career .252/.345/.521 Triple-A batting line to NPB. He has connected on 32 home runs in 120 games at the top minor league level. He’s an above-average runner with a plus arm and significant raw power. It’s the kind of profile that generally plays better in foreign leagues, where the average velocity and strikeout rate is lower than it is MLB. Canario would have been limited to minor league offers had he remained in affiliated ball, and his out-of-options status meant he’d likely have bounced around the waiver wire even if he hit his way back onto a team’s 40-man roster.

Blue Jays To Sign Josh Winckowski To Minor League Deal

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Right-hander Josh Winckowski is joining the Blue Jays on a two-year minor league deal, per MLBTR’s Steve Adams. The 27-year-old recently had internal brace surgery and hopes to pitch late in the 2026 season, notes Adams.

Winckowski didn’t break camp with the Red Sox this past season, but was called up in early April. He made six appearances with the club before getting sent back down. The righty hit the IL in May with an elbow issue that ended up being a flexor strain. The injury ended his season. Winckowski was designated for assignment in mid-November. He elected minor league free agency shortly after.

The additional news that Winckowski underwent internal brace surgery this month sheds more light on his potential timeline. The procedure typically allows pitchers to return sooner than they would if they had Tommy John surgery. Winckowski will be building back up as a starter, adds Adams. With several months of recovery still ahead of him, it makes sense that the Blue Jays inked him to a two-year deal.

It’s a return home for Winckowski, who was drafted by Toronto out of high school in 2016. He delivered promising results in the lower levels of the minors, reaching High-A by 2019. Winckowski was then involved in a pair of notable trades ahead of the 2021 season. Toronto sent him to the Mets as part of a package for Steven Matz. Two weeks later, New York flipped him to the Red Sox in a three-team deal that involved Andrew Benintendi going to the Royals.

Winckowski debuted with Boston in 2022. He made 15 appearances (14 starts) for the big-league club, pitching to a 5.89 ERA. Winckowski struggled to miss bats (13.9% strikeout rate) but got ground balls at more than a 52% clip. The Red Sox transitioned Winckowski to a bullpen role in 2023, and the change paid immediate dividends. The righty’s fastball velocity jumped more than 2 mph, and his strikeout rate improved to 22.3%. Winckowski continued to get ground balls at a well-above-average rate. The combination of an improved arsenal and the persistent ability to keep the ball on the ground helped Winckowski post a sterling 2.88 ERA across 60 appearances. He finished with 19 holds as an important member of Boston’s bullpen.

The 2024 campaign was a step back for Winckowski, both in terms of stuff and production. His fastball and sinker velocities fell a bit, and he reverted to underwhelming strikeout numbers. Winckowski was demoted to Triple-A on two separate occasions. The injuries limited him to just 11 2/3 innings with the Red Sox this past season. His health, along with his pending arbitration and the fact that he was out of minor league options, likely contributed to him getting bumped off Boston’s roster. Winckowski will now head to Toronto with the hopes of recovering in time to help the major league squad.

Photo courtesy of Eric Canha, Imagn Images

Angels Interested In Nolan Arenado

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As the Cardinals continue to pursue trades of their veterans, the Angels have emerged as a potential destination for Nolan Arenado. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic connected the third baseman to the Halos last week, and colleagues Will Sammon and Katie Woo echoed the sentiment this week.

Two potential roadblocks existed for an Arenado deal, one for each side, though the Angels have cleared up their end. As Sammon and Woo point out, St. Louis’ attempts to move the aging slugger have been hindered by fellow third basemen Alex Bregman and Eugenio Suarez still being on the market. Arenado would be a backup option to teams that come up short in pursuing Bregman and Suarez.

The Angels’ third base situation was clouded by the status of Anthony Rendon. The oft-injured infielder still had a year remaining on the disastrous seven-year, $245MM contract he signed after the 2019 season. Los Angeles resolved that situation yesterday, agreeing to a restructured contract with Rendon. The $38MM left on his deal will be deferred over the next three to five seasons. Rendon will not be back with the team in 2026. Following the Rendon news, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register mentioned Arenado as a possible trade target for the Halos.

Arenado is a SoCal guy, but that might not be enough for him to waive his no-trade clause to join the Angels. The financial aspects of the deal would also need to be sorted out. St. Louis has been able to move two of its three large veteran contracts so far this offseason, but both deals required cash attached to the player. The Cardinals sent $20MM to Boston in the Sonny Gray deal. They tossed in $8MM to complete the Willson Contreras trade, which was also with the Red Sox.

Arenado still has $42MM remaining on his current deal. The original eight-year, $260MM extension he signed with the Rockies runs out after the 2026 campaign, but the Cardinals added on another year for $15MM after acquiring him. By eating money in the Gray and Contreras trades, St. Louis was able to net MLB-ready starting pitchers in Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins. The Angels’ system isn’t exactly overflowing with talented starters, but players like Mitch Farris, Jack Kochanowicz, and Caden Dana fit the Fitts/Dobbins mold as young arms with minimal MLB service time who could contribute to a 2026 rotation.

It’s easy to forget just how good Arenado was in his first two seasons in St. Louis. He hit 34 home runs in his debut with the club, then delivered a monster 2022 that put him in the mix for NL MVP. Arenado slashed .293/.358/.533 and led the NL with 7.9 WAR (per Baseball Reference) that year. Teammate Paul Goldschmidt took home MVP honors, but Arenado earned his fifth Silver Slugger award and his 10th straight Gold Glove award.

Arenado steadily declined over the next three seasons. He provided decent results in 2023, knocking 26 home runs and finishing with a 107 wRC+. His power continued to fade the following year, as he posted a meager .123 ISO and the first sub-.400 SLG campaign of his career. Arenado bottomed out in 2025, slashing .237/.289/.377 with just a dozen dingers. He also missed time with a shoulder injury. Arenado’s 84 wRC+ in 2025 was his worst mark since his rookie year in 2013 (excluding the shortened 2020 season).

Despite the falloff at the plate, Arenado remains an above-average fielder and a solid contact hitter. If the cost is cheap enough, he could help an Angels team with an unsettled situation at the hot corner. The Halos largely relied on Yoan Moncada and Luis Rengifo at third base last season. Both players are now free agents. The current in-house options are Christian Moore, Oswald Peraza, and Vaughn Grissom. The trio could all be candidates to play second base as well, with Kyren Paris also factoring in at that position. The Angels have been bottom 10 in OPS at third base in each of the past five seasons.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images

Spencer Howard To Sign With NPB’s Yomiuri Giants

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Right-hander Spencer Howard is signing with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball, according to reports out of Japan (h/t to Yakyu Cosmopolitan). It’ll be the second year in NPB for Howard, who pitched for the Rakuten Eagles this past season. Before heading to Japan, Howard spent parts of five seasons with four MLB teams.

Injuries limited Howard to just nine starts with the Eagles in 2025. He pitched well when available, posting a 2.22 ERA across 48 2/3 innings. Howard is the second foreign signing for the Giants in the past 10 days. The club inked former Red Sox infielder Bobby Dalbec last week.

The 29-year-old Howard was once among the top prospects in Philadelphia’s organization. FanGraphs and MLB.com both gave him the No. 1 spot in 2021. The righty had briefly debuted the year prior, making six uneventful starts in the shortened 2020 season. Howard made 11 appearances for the Phillies in 2021, pitching to a 5.72 ERA with a solid 24.4% strikeout rate but a concerning 13.4% walk rate. Philly shipped him to Texas at the trade deadline for a return headlined by veteran arms Ian Kennedy and Kyle Gibson.

Texas gave Howard his longest look at the big-league level, but injuries limited him to 62 2/3 innings from 2021 to 2023. He wasn’t particularly effective with the club, scuffling to an 8.37 ERA across 21 appearances. Howard’s results at Triple-A Round Rock weren’t much better in that stretch. Texas shipped him to the Yankees in August 2023. He would also spend time with the Giants and Guardians before making the move to NPB. Howard has a 7.00 ERA across 144 MLB innings. His 4.77 SIERA paints a rosier picture, though not enough to suggest a return to the big leagues is in the cards.

Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images

Cubs Sign Hunter Harvey

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Dec 31: The team has officially announced the Harvey signing.

Dec. 30: Harvey can earn an additional $1.5MM via incentives, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

Dec. 28: The Cubs and right-hander Hunter Harvey are reportedly in agreement on a one-year contract that’ll guarantee him $6MM. Harvey, a client of the Beverly Hills Sports Council, still needs to complete a physical before the deal becomes official.

Harvey is looking to bounce back from an injury-plagued 2025 season that saw the reliever make just 12 appearances out of the Royals bullpen.  A teres major strain in early April kept Harvey out of action until late July, and he pitched in just six more games before being sidelined for good by a Grade 2 adductor strain.  The frustration of these two significant injuries was compounded by the fact that Harvey was looking great when healthy — he didn’t allow a run over his 10 2/3 innings pitched, while issuing one walk against 11 strikeouts.

Between these injuries and the back problems that marred the end of his 2024 campaign, Harvey ended up pitching only 16 1/3 innings in a Royals uniform after Kansas City acquired the righty from Washington in July 2024.  Unfortunately, health concerns are nothing new for Harvey, as his time as a top-100 prospect in the Orioles’ farm system was frequently interrupted by stints on the injured list.

It wasn’t until the 2022 season that Harvey (now with the Nationals) finally got an extended taste of MLB playing time.  He proceeded to post a 3.17 ERA, 27.83% strikeout rate, and 6.36% walk rate over 145 relief innings during his time in D.C., working in a high-leverage role and occasionally as a closer with the Nats.

Harvey has been prone to allowing a lot of hard contact, but his control and strikeout ability has allowed him to get out of jams when allowing baserunners.  Harvey has always been a hard thrower, though his 96.1 mph fastball in 2025 was the slowest velocity he has posted in his MLB career.  Of course, it’s hard to draw conclusions from that sample size of 10 2/3 IP, and it is certainly possible that Harvey will regain a tick or two on his heater once healthy.

Availability is the lingering question for Harvey, yet there is plenty of upside for the righty as he enters his age-31 season.  He is an ideal fit for Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who has traditionally shopped for lower-cost bullpen arms who can (if everything works out) provide plenty of bang for the buck.

Chicago’s two-year, $14.5MM deal with Phil Maton counts as a relative splurge by Hoyer’s bullpen spending standards, but the Cubs have now signed Maton, Harvey, Hoby Milner, Jacob Webb, and old friend Caleb Thielbar in what has quietly become a pretty extensive remodel of the relief corps.  Daniel Palencia remains as the Cubs’ first choice for saves, but Harvey now provides some backup as a reliever with some ninth-inning experience.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team pursue more veteran relievers on relatively inexpensive contracts, in order to give the Cubs as much depth as possible in advance of what Chicago hopes is a deeper postseason run.  The Cubs have been linked to a number of bigger-ticket position players and starting pitchers, but Maton’s deal remains their largest investment in a new player this offseason.

Will Sammon and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic first reported the agreement between the two sides. Jon Heyman of the New York Post added the contract’s length, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the salary.

Giants To Sign Tyler Mahle

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The Giants are closing in on a deal with free agent right-hander Tyler Mahle, reports Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s a one-year pact, per Rubin. The 31-year-old Mahle is a client of ISE Baseball.

Mahle is coming off an injury-riddled 2025 with the Rangers, though he was productive when healthy. The veteran righty was one of the most pleasant early-season surprises, pitching to a 1.64 ERA over the first two months of the season. Mahle allowed two earned runs or fewer in 11 of his first 12 starts to begin the campaign. He was knocked around for eight earned runs across his first two starts of June, then hit the IL with shoulder fatigue. Mahle returned for a pair of outings in September, allowing a run over 9 2/3 innings.

Persistent maladies have limited Mahle to just 125 innings over the past three seasons. He made nine starts across a season and a half with Minnesota, missing time with a strained shoulder and a forearm issue. It was a disappointing outcome for the Twins, who parted with Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to land Mahle at the 2022 trade deadline. After signing with Texas in December 2024, Mahle missed the first four months of the year while recovering from elbow surgery. After three games with his new club, he went down with shoulder tightness and missed the rest of the year.

Mahle was routinely striking out more than a batter per inning during his peak years with Cincinnati, but those numbers have tailed off as the injuries have mounted. Mahle posted an uninspiring 19.1% strikeout rate last season. He sat at 92 mph with his fastball, down a couple of ticks from his best seasons with the Reds. The ERA estimators all suggest Mahle’s 2.18 ERA in 2025 should be viewed with skepticism. His xERA and xFIP were both above 4.00, while his SIERA was all the way up at 4.62. Mahle ran hot with home run luck (4.9% HR/FB), while also benefiting from a career-high 84.6% LOB%.

It was reported in mid-December that the Giants were still in the market for pitching after signing righty Adrian Houser. With Justin Verlander hitting free agency, the club entered the offseason with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray as the only guaranteed members of the 2026 rotation. Landen Roupp, who missed the final six weeks of the 2025 campaign with a knee injury, is also expected to be on the staff. Houser and Mahle are the favorites to round out the group.

President of baseball operations Buster Posey entered the offseason focused on adding to the rotation and the bullpen. While the club has been connected to some of the bigger names on the starter market, including Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen, the moves so far have been relatively minor. Houser came on board via a two-year, $22MM pact with a club option for a third season. The Giants added relievers Jason Foley and Sam Hentges on cheap deals. Mahle now joins the squad on a one-year deal.

Given the injury histories for Ray and Mahle, plus the limited track record for Roupp, San Francisco will likely need to lean on internal options for additional innings. Carson Whisenhunt, Carson Seymour, and Kai-Wei Teng all received opportunities last season, but none delivered useful results. Hayden Birdsong graduated from a long relief role to the rotation, but control issues led to a demotion to Triple-A. Keaton Winn and Blade Tidwell (acquired in the Tyler Rogers trade) missed time with injuries. Trevor McDonald might be the leading candidate to open the year as the sixth starter/injury fill-in. The righty closed the year with a pair of stellar outings, tossing six innings of one-run ball against the Dodgers and striking out 10 Rockies over seven frames.

RosterResource currently has the Giants’ payroll at $175MM for 2026. That mark doesn’t include Mahle’s deal or the $17MM payment owed to Blake Snell in mid-January as part of his deferred signing bonus. When adding in those considerations, the club is on track to comfortably exceed the $177MM it spent on payroll last season. The increase in expenses could be the reason the Giants ultimately rounded out the rotation with low-cost veterans in Houser and Mahle. A general hesitation by the front office to pursue long-term deals for starters likely also factored in.

Photos courtesy of  Jerome Miron, Imagn Images

Blue Jays Sign Nic Enright To Two-Year Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays have agreed to a two-year minor league deal with right-hander Nic Enright, according to a report from ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.

Enright, 28, has had a difficult career to this point despite solid results. A 20th-round pick by Cleveland back in 2019, the righty made his way up the organizational ladder to reach Triple-A with excellent results in 2022. That seemingly put him on the radar for a call-up to the majors, but was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma in December of that year. The diagnosis came shortly after Enright was selected by the Marlins in the Rule 5 draft and severely limited him throughout the 2023 campaign, although he did eventually begin a rehab assignment while undergoing treatment. He struggled before being returned to the Guardians, but by 2024 was back to posting excellent numbers in the minors.

That earned Enright the opportunity to make his MLB debut this year, and he made the most of the opportunity with a sterling 2.03 ERA and a 23.7% strikeout rate in 31 innings of work. Enright had the look of a quality bullpen piece when on the mound, but his health derailed things once again when the righty underwent Tommy John surgery in October. The timing of that injury will cost Enright the entire 2026 season, which led the Guardians to non-tender him last month despite his status as a pre-arbitration player. That sent Enright into minor league free agency for the first time in his career, and he’s now managed to catch on with the reigning AL champions.

The deal between Toronto and Enright is for both the 2026 and ’27 seasons. While minor league deals are typically for just one year, two-year deals are somewhat common for talented players who are rehabbing from significant surgery. They serve as a way for the acquiring club to take control of the player’s rehab process with the assurance that they’ll be the organization with the first crack at reaping the benefits once the player returns to health. From the player’s perspective, the two-year guarantee offers some security that otherwise would not be afforded to them, saving them from having to go back into minor league free agency coming off a season lost to rehab.

While Enright won’t have an impact on the Blue Jays in 2026, it would hardly be a surprise to see him join the Toronto bullpen at some point in 2027 given his previous results and obvious talent when healthy. The Blue Jays’ pitching staff figures to look very different in 2027, as Shane Bieber and Kevin Gausman will depart the rotation for free agency after the 2026 campaign while Eric Lauer and Yimi Garcia figure to leave a hole in the bullpen when they hit the open market. It’s hard to know exactly how open the competition for Toronto’s 2027 pitching staff will be more than a year in advance, but it’s certainly plausible that those impending departures could help create an opportunity for Enright to join players like Jeff Hoffman, Tyler Rogers, and Louis Varland in the team’s relief corps once he’s healthy.

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