Guardians Acquire Justin Bruihl, Designate Jhonkensy Noel For Assignment
The Guardians have acquired left-hander Justin Bruihl from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. The Jays had designated the lefty for assignment earlier this week. To open a 40-man spot, the Guards designated outfielder Jhonkensy Noel for assignment.
Bruihl, 29 in June, signed a minor league deal with the Jays ahead of the 2025 campaign. He eventually earned a roster spot and had a decent season, in some ways. His 5.27 earned run average in the majors doesn’t look nice, but that came in a small sample of 13 2/3 innings. He also had a strong 27.7% strikeout rate and 46.2% ground ball rate in that time. His 10.8% walk rate was a bit high but he was really held back by a .459 batting average on balls in play. ERA estimators such as his 4.16 FIP and 3.42 SIERA were far more optimistic.
His minor league numbers look more like those latter metrics than his big league ERA. He tossed 42 innings for Triple-A Buffalo with a 3.43 ERA, 27.8% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 58.4% ground ball rate.
Bruihl doesn’t throw especially hard. His two-seamer averaged just 90.2 miles per hour this year. He also mixed in a cutter at 87.5 mph and a 78.4 mph slider. He nonetheless managed to punch guys out and avoid hard contact. The Jays sent him between Triple-A and the majors this year but he was enough of a factor to be on their ALDS roster against a lefty-heavy Yankee lineup. He wasn’t carried on the roster for subsequent rounds.
Despite some intriguing numbers this year, he got squeezed off Toronto’s roster this week. He exhausted his final option in 2025 and will be out of options going forward. With the Jays also having lefties Brendon Little, Mason Fluharty and Eric Lauer on the roster, they designated Bruihl for assignment.
The Guards are intrigued enough to bring him aboard. Their southpaw relief contingent is currently headlined by Erik Sabrowski and Tim Herrin but those two each walked more than 15.5% of batters faced in 2025. Joey Cantillo could be in the mix but he’s more of a long reliever. With Bruihl’s option status, he’ll have to perform but there’s a path for him to earn a job in the Cleveland bullpen. He has under two years of service time, meaning he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration and can be controlled for five full seasons if he can hold a roster spot.
The unfortunate side effect of adding Bruihl is that the Guards have cut “Big Christmas” from the roster barely a week before the holiday he’s named after. Noel has shown some big power in his career but also has a poor approach at the plate. In his 351 big league plate appearances, 32.8% of them have ended in a strikeout while he has only drawn a walk 4.8% of the time.
Despite hitting 19 home runs, his .193/.242/.401 batting line translates to a 79 wRC+. He’s not a good defender nor is he a burner on the basepaths, so he really needs to hit to provide value. The homers help but the overall offense has been lacking.
Like Bruihl, he exhausted his final option season in 2025. That was going to make it harder for the Guards to keep him on the roster, especially with guys like Chase DeLauter and George Valera reaching the big leagues this year.
He’ll head into DFA limbo and see if the Guards can line up a trade or if anyone wants him on waivers. If he lands somewhere else, he can be controlled for five full seasons. Since he has less than three years of service and doesn’t have a previous career outright, he will not have the right to elect free agency if he is passed through outright waivers unclaimed.
Photo courtesy of Ken Blaze, Dennis Lee, Imagn Images
Orioles Outright Maverick Handley
December 17th: The Orioles announced today that Handley has cleared waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk. Romo was claimed by the Mets earlier today.
December 11th: The Orioles announced that catcher Maverick Handley has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for their signing of first baseman Pete Alonso, which has now been made official.
Handley, 28 in March, got to make his major league debut in 2025. The O’s began the season with Adley Rutschman and Gary Sánchez as their catching duo but both of those two suffered a few injuries during the campaign. Baltimore had to dip into some depth, which led to Handley getting 47 plate appearances across 16 games, but he struck out in 38.3% of those while walking just 4.3% of the time and put up a .073/.133/.073 line.
The O’s called up catching prospect Samuel Basallo late in the season and signed him to an extension. Rutschman can still be retained via arbitration through 2027. Those two should be the primary backstops in Baltimore for the time being. As of a few days ago, Handley and Drew Romo were on the 40-man as optionable depth. However, Romo was designated for assignment yesterday, so the O’s now have just two catchers on the roster and two potential depth guys in DFA limbo.
Handley does not have a previous career outright, nor does he have three years of big league service time. That means he would not have the right to elect free agency if he were passed through waivers unclaimed. The same is true of Romo. If one or both clear waivers, the O’s might be content with their catching depth situation. If they lose one or both, that should increase the chances of Baltimore looking for extra depth via the waiver wire or minor league deals.
For now, they have a week of DFA limbo to figure out what’s next for Handley. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so they could take five days to talk trades with other clubs. His big league track record thus far is obviously unimpressive but in a tiny sample size. Dating back to the start of 2023, he stepped to the plate 765 times in the minors with solid 14% walk rate but only nine home runs. His .227/.352/.323 line led to a wRC+ of 87, which is not bad for a backup/depth catcher. If he lands with another club, he still has options and less than a year of service time.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
Giants Still In The Market For Pitching
The Giants made a couple of additions to the pitching staff this week. They signed reliever Jason Foley and reportedly have an agreement in place with starter Adrian Houser. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Giants are still in the market for pitching additions, both in the rotation and the bullpen.
That’s not especially surprising. Foley is recovering from shoulder surgery and is expected to start the season on the injured list. The bullpen was a strength for San Francisco in 2025 but they traded Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers at the deadline. Randy Rodríguez required Tommy John surgery in September. Joey Lucchesi was non-tendered last month. The Giants have subsequently signed Sam Hentges and Foley but that’s not going to make up for what they’ve lost.
In the rotation, Justin Verlander became a free agent at season’s end. The Houser signing will make up for that loss to some degree but the Giants will understandably want to do more. The club’s rotation had a collective 4.10 ERA this year, putting them 17th among big league teams. As of now, Logan Webb and Robbie Ray are the front two. Houser and Landen Roupp should have two more spots spoken for.
That leaves one spot for a group consisting of Kai-Wei Teng, Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell, Trevor McDonald, Carson Seymour, Hayden Birdsong and Keaton Winn. That’s a lot of arms and they all have their varying levels of appeal but no one in that group is fully established as a viable big leaguer. Each of them has less than 108 big league innings and they can all still be optioned to the minors.
The club might want to leave a path open for one guy in that group to separate himself from the pack but that should happen anyway. No team gets through a full season these days without a few notable injuries on the pitching staff. Even if the Giants start the season with those guys all blocked from a rotation gig, there will be opportunities throughout the campaign.
The question will be how aggressive they plan on being in upgrading the rotation. Chairman/owner Greg Johnson and general manager Zack Minasian have both suggested the Giants would prefer to avoid long-term deals for pitchers.
The top end of the free agent pitching market is one area that has moved fairly slowly. Dylan Cease was quickly snapped up by the Blue Jays but Tatsuya Imai, Framber Valdez, Ranger Suárez, Zac Gallen and Michael King are all still available. Despite the club’s apparent preference to avoid lengthy deals, they have nonetheless been connected to Valdez and Gallen, so perhaps there is a scenario where they get involved there. If they go for another signing in line with their Houser deal, guys like Zack Littell, Chris Bassitt and Nick Martinez are out there.
There is also the trade market to consider. If the Giants want to avoid lengthy free agent deals, they could pursue guys like MacKenzie Gore of the Nationals, Kris Bubic of the Royals, Edward Cabrera of the Marlins, Kodai Senga of the Mets, Mitch Keller of the Pirates or many others.
Those guys have varying degrees of trade value. For instance, Bubic shouldn’t be too costly since he is a rental and finished 2025 on the injured list. Gore, on the other hand, pitched like an ace for much of this year and is still cheaply controlled for two seasons. The Giants are reportedly willing to consider trading prospect Bryce Eldridge. That doesn’t mean that they will actually move him but perhaps a notable trade is possible.
RosterResource currently pegs the Giants for a payroll of $180MM and a competitive balance tax figure of $203MM next year. It’s unclear where they want to end up but they are more than $40MM shy of the base threshold of the tax, which will be $244MM next year.
They are also on the lookout for upgrades at second base and the outfield. Whatever spending capacity they do have, they probably won’t dedicate all of it to pitching, but they could also address some of their other targets via the trade market. They are reportedly one of the frontrunners for the Cardinals’ Brendan Donovan, alongside the Mariners.
Photo courtesy of Robert Edwards, Imagn Images
MLBTR Podcast: The Mets Sign Jorge Polanco, And The Braves, Blue Jays And Royals Make Moves
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Mets signing Jorge Polanco (2:40)
- The Braves making three signings: Robert Suarez, Mike Yastrzemski and Ha-Seong Kim (17:15)
- The Blue Jays signing Tyler Rogers and Cody Ponce (31:40)
- The Royals extending Maikel Garcia, signing Lane Thomas and trading Ángel Zerpa to the Brewers for Isaac Collins and Nick Mears (46:10)
- The Tigers making three signings: Kenley Jansen, Kyle Finnegan and Drew Anderson (57:25)
Check out our past episodes!
- Winter Meetings Recap – listen here
- An Agent’s Perspective with B.B. Abbott – Also, Cease, Williams, Helsley, And Gray – listen here
- Some “Classic Baseball Trades,” Nimmo For Semien, And Ward For Rodriguez – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images
Cubs Sign Hoby Milner
December 16th: The Cubs have officially announced Milner’s signing.
December 11th: The Cubs and left-hander Hoby Milner are reportedly in agreement on a one-year deal. The MVP Sports Group will make $3.75MM plus incentives. The Cubs have multiple 40-man vacancies and don’t need to make a corresponding move.
Milner, 35 in January, is an unusual but effective southpaw. He doesn’t throw very hard, averaging in the high 80s with his fastball and sinker. But he nonetheless manages to get outs with an unorthodox sidewinding delivery, with his arsenal also featuring a slider and a changeup.
Over the past four seasons, Milner has thrown at least 64 innings in each campaign. Put together, he has logged 264 innings in that span, allowing 3.55 earned runs per nine. His 22.6% strikeout rate in that time was close to average while his 5.8% walk rate and 51.1% ground ball rate were both notably better than par. His Statcast data in that span has also been better than league average, with Milner having an 87 mile per hour exit velocity, 5.4% barrel rate and 35.5% hard hit rate. He earned one save and 49 holds over that four-year stretch.
That span did feature a fluky ERA spike, as Milner posted a 4.73 ERA with the Brewers in 2024. The Brewers could have retained him for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $2.7MM salary, but they non-tendered him instead. The Rangers scooped him up with a deal for $2.5MM plus incentives and benefitted from a bounceback, as Milner posted a 3.84 ERA in 2025.
The Cubs have now given him a slight raise in the hopes that he can keep things rolling in 2026. Cubs manager Craig Counsell is plenty familiar with Milner’s abilities, as he was the skipper in Milwaukee when Milner established himself as a viable big league reliever.
Chicago had a decent relief corps in 2025. Their relievers had a collective ERA of 3.78, putting them just outside the top ten of MLB clubs. But at season’s end, Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar, Drew Pomeranz, Taylor Rogers, Michael Soroka, Aaron Civale and Ryan Brasier all became free agents. The Cubs flipped Andrew Kittredge to the Orioles in the early days of the offseason, getting cash considerations back in return.
The Cubs generally prefer to build their bullpens on the cheap. From 2020 until last month, they didn’t sign any free agent relievers to multi-year deals, part of the reason why they just lost so many arms to free agency. They broke that pattern recently by signing Phil Maton to a two-year deal, but Milner is another low-cost, short-term commitment to the relief group.
The southpaw contingent of the bullpen was particularly lacking before this move, with Thielbar, Pomeranz and Rogers all departing for the open market. That left Luke Little as the top option, despite having just 35 1/3 career innings with an 18.2% walk rate. Milner is now the most experienced lefty in the group, though the Cubs could make further additions before the offseason is through.
This move brings the Cubs to a $184MM payroll and $199MM competitive balance tax figure, according to RosterResource. It’s unclear where the Cubs want the payroll to end up. The base threshold of the CBT is $244MM next year, meaning the Cubs are $45MM away. They went narrowly over the tax line in 2024 but ducked back below in 2025. They are still on the hunt for a big rotation upgrade. They’ve been connected to free agent Alex Bregman. They will presumably be looking for more relievers. How it all plays out will depend on how much dry powder the Cubs have.
Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation was first on the deal. Brittany Ghiroli of The Athletic noted it would be for one year. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com had the guarantee. Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron, Benny Sieu, Imagn Images
Braves To Sign Aaron Schunk To Minor League Deal
The Braves will have infielder Aaron Schunk in camp as a non-roster invitee, reports Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That indicates the CAA Sports client and the club have agreed to a minor league deal.
Schunk, 28, changes organizations for the first time in his career. He was drafted by the Rockies in 2019, selected in the second round, and has been with that club a few weeks ago. With Colorado, he got into 55 big league games over the past two seasons. He stepped to the plate 131 times but struck out in 31.3% of those plate appearances and only drew a walk 3.1% of the time as he put up a tepid .222/.246/.302 line.
His minor league offense has been better but not outstanding. In 1,170 Triple-A plate appearances, he has a .291/.348/.468 line. That looks good at first blush all those trips to the plate took place in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, where that kind of production translates to an 89 wRC+. That indicates he was actually 11% worse than league average. The Rockies outrighted him off the roster in October and he elected free agency.
Defensively, his reputation is pretty strong. He is considered an above average third baseman and has also spent a lot of time at the middle infield spots. The left side of Atlanta’s infield has some uncertainty. Austin Riley has finished the past two seasons on the injured list. He underwent core surgery in August of 2025 and spent the final few weeks of the campaign on the IL. At shortstop, they just signed Ha-Seong Kim to take over there. He returned from shoulder surgery in 2025 but battled other injuries and only got into 48 games.
Atlanta has Mauricio Dubón on the bench to provide backup at those two spots, as well as others. Second baseman Ozzie Albies is also a bit of a question mark after two straight down seasons at the plate. Vidal Bruján and Brett Wisely are also on the roster but both are out of options and could be on the roster bubble. Nacho Alvarez Jr. is on the 40-man but Atlanta would presumably prefer to have him getting regular playing time in the minors.
If Schunk is eventually able to earn a 40-man spot, he still has an option, meaning he could be shuttled to Triple-A and back. He has less than a year of service time, meaning he could also be cheaply retained for years to come if that becomes a consideration.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Gorski, Imagn Images
Rangers Looking For Starting Pitcher, Right-Handed Bat
The Rangers just bolstered their roster with a few free agents, signing catcher Danny Jansen and left-hander Tyler Alexander. They reportedly also have an agreement in place with right-hander Alexis Díaz, although that deal isn’t official yet. President of baseball operations Chris Young and general manager Ross Fenstermaker spoke to the media today about the Jansen and Alexander signings and what’s still to come in the offseason. Jeff Wilson of DLLS Sports relays that the club is looking for a starting pitcher, a right-handed bat and further bullpen upgrades.
Those are all sensible targets. The lineup struggled in 2025 and they have already subtracted two notable righty bats. They traded Marcus Semien to the Mets for Brandon Nimmo and non-tendered outfielder Adolis García, who has now signed with the Phillies. Nimmo effectively replaces García in the Texas outfield but Nimmo swings from the left side. The most likely replacement for Semien at second is Josh Smith, another lefty.
In addition to Nimmo and Smith, the Rangers have lefties Corey Seager, Joc Pederson and Evan Carter in the lineup. Nimmo and Seager are everyday guys. Smith has fairly modest platoon splits thus far in his career. Pederson and Carter, however, both struggle against southpaws. Manager Skip Schumaker has suggested Carter could get a bit of a longer look against lefties but could also be shielded from some of the tougher ones.
A righty bat who could play some outfield could help the club on the grass and also in the designated hitter spot. Ezequiel Durán and Michael Helman are on the 40-man roster, swing right-handed and can play the outfield. Sam Haggerty is a switch-hitter. However, all three generally profile as light-hitting utility types.
The free agent market features Harrison Bader, Austin Hays, Miguel Andujar, Rob Refsnyder, Tommy Pham, Austin Slater, Randal Grichuk and other righty-swinging outfielders. No one in that group should command a massive deal but various reports have indicated the Rangers are reportedly dealing with a tight budget and have other things on the to-do list. Luis Robert Jr. seems to be available in trades but the White Sox are setting a high asking price. Nick Castellanos is out there but he hasn’t been an impact bat for a few years. The Astros are looking to flip Jake Meyers but he’s more of a glove-first outfielder. There’s also the intra-divisional aspect and the fact that Houston wants an immediate rotation upgrade that Texas can’t really provide.
Speaking of the rotation, the Rangers currently have a top-heavy group. Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom are a strong one-two punch at the front but it drops off after that. Tyler Mahle, Patrick Corbin, Merrill Kelly and Jon Gray all became free agents at season’s end. Jack Leiter is coming off a decent season, with a 3.86 earned run average over 151 2/3 innings. Kumar Rocker‘s season wasn’t as smooth, as he had a 5.74 ERA over 14 starts. Jacob Latz had a decent year as a swingman but is still lacking in major league starting experience. There are some other starters on the 40-man but all are younger and even less experienced than Leiter and Rocker.
It would be prudent for the club to add a mid-rotation guy, one who would ideally slot in behind the Eovaldi and deGrom duo. Again, the financial constraints may play a role. Apart from the Dylan Cease signing, most of the top free agents are still out there, but the Rangers probably aren’t looking at that market. Perhaps someone like Chris Bassitt, Lucas Giolito or Zack Littell could be viable, depending on how much powder is dry and how the club attacks other spots. Guys like Kris Bubic, Edward Cabrera, MacKenzie Gore, Kodai Senga, Mitch Keller and others could be on the trade block, with varying degrees of trade value.
The budgetary concerns were a factor in the club’s bullpen-building strategy a year ago. They gave one-year deals to Chris Martin, Hoby Milner, Luke Jackson, Jacob Webb and Shawn Armstrong. The group ended up performing pretty well but almost the entire relief corps hit free agency after the 2025 season. As mentioned, they have added Alexander and Díaz but will presumably keep looking for more bullpen bargains. Wilson says the club isn’t expected to target the top of the relief market.
RosterResource currently projects the Rangers for a payroll of $175MM next year. That’s almost $50MM south of last year’s $224MM figure but all indications are that the club will spend less on the 2026 club, though it’s unclear exactly where they plan to end up.
Photo courtesy of Tim Heitman, Imagn Images
Rays Designate Tristan Peters For Assignment
The Rays announced that outfielder Tristan Peters has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move for their signing of left-hander Steven Matz, whose two-year deal is now official.
Peters, 26 in February, got to make his major league debut in 2025. The Rays added him to their 40-man roster in August but he was mostly kept on optional assignment. He only got into four games with 12 plate appearances in total. He didn’t get a hit or a walk and struck out seven times.
That’s obviously a small sample size. In the minors, Peters has done a lot of things well without a standout tool. His 11.7% walk rate and 18.1% strikeout rate are both a bit better than average. He has hit a few home runs but never more than 15 in a season. He can also steal about 15ish bases a year. He can play all three outfield slots.
The total package was enough to get him up to the big leagues but the Rays don’t view him as a key building block. Now that he’s been bumped off the 40-man, he’ll be in DFA limbo for a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Rays could take five days to see if there’s any trade interest. Peters still has a couple of options and just a handful of service days. If any club acquires him, he could be a depth outfielder with roster flexibility and years of cheap control. If he is passed through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Rays as non-roster depth.
Photo courtesy of Steven Bisig, Imagn Images
Trenton Brooks, Nathan Wiles Sign With KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes
The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization announced their four foreign-player signings for the 2026 season, as relayed by Yoo Jee-ho of Yonhap News Agency. They have re-signed right-hander Raúl Alcantara, who pitched for the Heroes in 2025. They have also added first baseman Trenton Brooks, right-hander Nathan Wiles and Japanese right-hander Yuto Kanakubo. Alcantara will earn a $700K salary with $200K in incentives available. Wiles gets a $910K salary. Brooks gets $700K plus $150K in incentives. Kanakubo gets $100K with $30K in incentives available.
For many years, KBO teams have been limited to having three non-Korean players on their rosters. Starting in 2026, that number will jump to four, but one must be from another Asian country or Australia. In effect, KBO teams are still capped at three North American players, but the new rule has allowed the Heroes to add Kanakubo.
Brooks, 30, has had a lot of minor league success but hasn’t yet translated it to the big leagues. That’s a pretty common arc for a player heading overseas. He’s had brief looks in the majors with the Padres and Giants, getting 72 plate appearances in total with a dismal .136/.208/.212 line. But from 2021 to 2025, he took 1,994 plate appearances at the Triple-A level with a 13.9% walk rate and 16.6% strikeout rate while launching 66 home runs. His combined line of .279/.382/.472 translated to a wRC+ of 117.
Despite the consistently solid offense, Brooks was stuck in Quad-A status for a while. That’s perhaps due to his limited defensive abilities, as he’s mostly a first baseman with some experience in the outfield. He didn’t get to make his major league debut until he was almost 29 years old. The Padres passed him though waivers unclaimed in August.
If had he stayed in North America for the 2026 season, he likely would have been limited to minor league deals. By heading to South Korea, he will secure a guaranteed salary pretty close to the MLB minimum, which will be $780K next year. If he thrives with the Heroes, he could try to come back to the majors down the road or he could parlay his success into another deal in Asia.
Wiles, 27, just made his major league debut by tossing one inning for Atlanta back in April. He spent the majority of the season on optional assignment. He logged 112 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with a 3.04 earned run average, 22.2% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate. He has generally had good control throughout his minor league career but without huge strikeout or ground ball totals.
Atlanta released him in November. Like Brooks, he was likely looking at minor league deals if he stayed in affiliated ball. Heading overseas gives him a chance to pitch on a bigger stage. Even if he had secured a major league deal, his salary would likely have been less than this deal with the Heroes.
Pitchers returning from pitching in Asia has become a popular route to take. Just this offseason, Cody Ponce, Drew Anderson, Anthony Kay, Foster Griffin and Ryan Weiss have signed multi-million-dollar deals after stints in Japan or South Korea. Wiles is still relatively young and could follow in those footsteps.
Alcantara pitched in the majors in 2016 and 2017. He’s been pitching for various Japanese and Korean clubs since then. He spent 2025 with the Heroes and gave them 121 innings with a 3.27 ERA. Kanakubo is a 26-year-old who has spent his career with the Yakult Swallows in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball but that club has mostly kept him in the minors. He hasn’t topped 14 innings pitched at the top level in Japan in any of the past four seasons.
Photo courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Images
Blue Jays Designate Justin Bruihl For Assignment
The Blue Jays announced that they have designated left-hander Justin Bruihl for assignment. That’s the corresponding move to open a 40-man spot for righty Tyler Rogers, whose signing is now official.
Bruihl, 29 in June, signed a minor league deal with the Jays last offseason. He was added to the big league roster in June and spent the rest of the season getting repeatedly shuttled between Toronto and Triple-A Buffalo.
He made 15 appearances for the Jays, logging 13 2/3 innings. His 5.27 earned run average doesn’t look pretty but he likely deserved better, as his .459 batting average on balls in play was way above the .291 league average. His 27.7% strikeout rate and 46.2% ground ball rate were actually quite strong. His 10.8% walk rate was high but not egregiously so.
He also tossed 42 Triple-A innings on the year, with a much better 3.43 ERA despite somewhat comparable rate stats. He certainly got more grounders in the minors, a 58.4% clip, but his 27.8% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate were both very close to what he did in the majors. His .274 BABIP was much closer to par, which helped the ERA even out to a more acceptable level.
Despite the high ERA in the majors, the Jays trusted Bruihl enough to have him pitch in some important games. He was even on the roster for the ALDS matchup against the Yankees, though he allowed two earned runs in his lone appearance against that club and was left off the ALCS roster.
Though there were some things to like about Bruihl’s 2025 campaign, he exhausted his final option season. That means he will be out of options going forward and will find it tougher to hold a roster spot. That’s especially true for a team like the Blue Jays, who have been aggressively adding to the roster as they look to compete again in 2026. Toronto also has three other lefty relievers on the roster in Brendon Little, Mason Fluharty and long reliever Eric Lauer. Prospect Ricky Tiedemann might also factor into the bullpen plans after missing 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
It might be a bit easier for Bruihl to stick with a rebuilding club with a roster that isn’t quite so packed. He’ll be in DFA limbo for a week at most. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Jays could take five days to field trade interest. If Bruihl lands somewhere else, he has between one and two years of service time. That means he hasn’t yet qualified for arbitration and can potentially be controlled for five full seasons.
Photo courtesy of Dennis Lee, Imagn Images