Blue Jays quest for new bullpen closer can wait

One more middle of order bat should be priority

Ever since the Blue Jays, four years ago, stumbled into a trade for side-arming middle reliever Adam Cimber from the Marlins at the 2021 deadline, this front office has remained in love with the idea of a righthanded, soft-tossing control freak from down under (not Australia) to change the look they show opponents out of the bullpen.

Thus it was that on the very same day, last week, the Jays acquired RH Chase Lee from the Tigers and then signed free-agent RH Tyler Rogers, who, as a duo, not coincidentally, currently rank as two of the bottom three delivery angles in the majors. Do not be surprised if Rogers becomes the first man out of the Jays pen in many Trey Yesavage starts. The young phee-nom, who remains a Jays rookie, has one of the highest release points in MLB, alongside future Hall-of-Famer Justin Verlander.

As for the 27-year-old Lee, who made his MLB debut this summer, he has two options remaining, so they can store him at AAA-Buffalo as a mini-me, while the durable, strike-throwing Rogers, who played for the Giants and Mets in 2025, plies his trade in a setup/middle relief role with the defending AL Champions.

The signing of Rogers, 35, for a reported $37.3-million should signal the end of the quest, for the moment, to upgrade on incumbent closer, Jeff Hoffman. Here’s why.

Major-league clubs carry 13 pitchers on the active 26-man roster. The Jays currently have eight pitchers on the 40-man roster who have guaranteed contracts for 2026 – Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Shane Bieber, Hoffman, Cody Ponce, Rogers and Yimi Garcia. The total for that Jays’ elite eight is $114.8M. Note, these are numbers for 2026 as per Cot’s Baseball Contracts and does not include percentage of signing bonuses, nor does it reflect salary as calculated for the MLB luxury tax.

Now, add to those eight guaranteed contracts, two arbitration eligible Jays hurlers, Eric Lauer and Tommy Nance. Then add to that five more important pitchers that are under club control, but with not enough service time to have leverage. That list includes Yesavage, Louis Varland, Brendon Little, Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty.

Basic match shows a Blue Jays total of legitimate, opening day, candidates for next March, if everyone is healthy, of 15 pitchers, with room for only 13 on the roster. It should be noted that there are five non-guaranteed pitchers on the 40-man roster that cannot be optioned to the minors. That inflexible list includes Lauer, Nance, Angel Bastardo, Spencer Miles and Justin Bruihl.

Now, granted, I have described at length in previous columns and on Exit Philosophy, the need and the likelihood for Berrios to be traded before training camp begins in February. Things have not worked out for the 31-year-old righthander, who has three years, at $66M, remaining on his well-received contract that he signed with the Jays back in the off-season of 2021-22. It was one of the first signals to MLB and to future free agents that the Jays were serious about building and maintaining a contender through this decade and beyond.

There are no hindsight regrets about signing Berrios to that seven-year contract, but things have not worked out perfectly in the relationship, starting with the Jays’ quick hook in the 2023 Wild Card game at the Twins, then being yanked from the rotation this September and left off all three post-season series rosters, then choosing not to stay around as the Jays battled the Dodgers in the Fall Classic.

Of course, for Berrios to be traded, the Jays will definitely need to eat a large portion of the remaining three years on his contract, but that can work because the man that is replacing him, the KBO MVP, Ponce is earning $30M over the same three years. The Jays basically have the difference of $36M between the two contracts, with which to wiggle and negotiate. Look for that to happen.

So, then, back to the first question. Why not go out and find a new bullpen closer? Other than the number of excess MLB bodies in the 2026 relief pitcher mix is the reality that the Jays should now turn their attention and be focussed on a middle of the order bat to solidify the lineup – either 2B Bo Bichette or OF Kyle Tucker.

Plus, with the pen, the ’26 trade deadline may now, in fact, become a time for the Jays to re-evaluate what they have, who has developed, who has regressed, plus who is healthy, then do a relief reset in July.

Simply consider the inventory that became available at the back end of the pen in 2025, that included Jhoan Duran, Mason Miller, Ryan Helsely, David Bednar, Camilo Doval, Kyle Finnegan and Griffin Jax. The Jays even succeeded in strengthening the relief corps at the last deadline, adding Varland and Seranthony Dominguez.

As for the Jays’ most pressing need, consider a FanGraphs projection on its important Roster Resources page. They suggest that the Jays projected batting order in ‘26, in the key run productions spots, from four-through-six, at this stage of the off-season, with a new year approaching, would be some combination of Daulton Varsho, Alejandro Kirk, Anthony Santander and Addison Barger. That’s a lot of dice-rolling.

For those that argue you cannot go ninth-inning again with Hoffman as your guy, we remind you that they did it in 2025 and reached to within two outs of a World Series ring. Right now, if spring training opened on January 1, here’s how the Jays bullpen would look.

Closer: Jeff Hoffman

Setup Men: Yimi Garcia; Tyler Rogers; Louis Varland.

Lefthanders: Brendon Little; Mason Fluharty.

Long men: LH Eric Lauer, RH Braydon Fisher.

This has been a closer look at the Jays call to arms in 2026, but what does the future hold for the organization, in terms of pitching, considering they are set, at the end of the season, to be losing Gausman, Bieber, Lauer and Garcia?

Checking out the MLB Pipeline current list of Blue Jays Top 30 prospects, there are 14 pitchers at 24 years-of-age or younger. That is an impressive rebuild to what had not too long ago been a thin blue line of future major-leaguers — until the front office sell-off in 2024 that served to restock the upper levels of the farm.

Here is the MLB.com list of 14 pitchers, 24-or-younger in the Jays Top 30, with current age in parentheses. 1- RH Yesavage (22) … 4- LH Ricky Tiedemann (23) … 5- LH Johnny King (19) … 6- RH Gage Stanifer (22) … 8- RH Jake Bloss (24) … 16- RH Micah Bucknam (22) … 17- RH Fernando Perez (21) … 22- LH Adam Macko (24) … 23- LH Jared Spencer (22) … 24- LH Brandon Barriera (21) … 25- RH Silvano Hechavarria (22) … 28- RH Landen Maroudis (20) … 29- RH Bastardo (23) … 30- RH Carson Messina (19).