Hayden Juenger

The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Austin Voth has been designated for assignment.  Right-hander Hayden Juenger‘s contract has been selected from Triple-A, as Juenger will take Voth’s place on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters.

Toronto has now DFA’ed Voth twice this season, and the first designation in early April saw Voth elect free agency rather than an accept outright assignment to Triple-A, though he soon re-signed with the Jays on a new minor league deal.  In both cases, Voth was designated after eating some innings in a bullpen game — he allowed one run in 2 2/3 innings in a 3-0 loss to the White Sox on April 5, and was hit hard for five runs over 3 1/3 innings in yesterday’s 6-5 victory over the Orioles.

It seems quite possible history will repeat itself with Voth’s latest trip through the DFA process.  Assuming he isn’t claimed off waivers, he might opt for free agency and then re-sign with Toronto again, or he might just streamline things by accepting an outright assignment.  Given how the Blue Jays are still dealing with numerous injuries to their starting pitchers, Voth might soon be called upon again to cover some innings, so he might view the Jays as his best route to another big league appearance.

Juenger will provide the Jays bullpen with a fresh arm for today’s game in Baltimore, and the 25-year-old will be making his Major League debut whenever he appears in a game.  A sixth-round pick out of Missouri State in the 2021 draft, Juenger isn’t listed as a top-30 prospect in Toronto’s farm system by either Baseball America or MLB Pipeline, but a strong performance at Triple-A Buffalo this season has punched his ticket to the Show.

Over 20 innings for Buffalo in 2026, Juenger has a 3.15 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, and 9.1% walk rate.  Those numbers come despite a .386 BABIP, as Juenger’s FIP is an even more impressive 2.40.  Juenger also hasn’t allowed a home run this year, which speaks to a bit of luck in the other direction though his grounder rate is a solid 44.6%.  The Jays have spent the last few years using Juenger as a multi-inning reliever, so he’ll step into the bullpen to soak up as many innings as he can in his taste of the majors.