Blue Jays waiver claims reflect organization call to arms

Mining the wire like panning for gold

For the past two months of this lost season, since the MLB trade deadline, Blue Jays’ GM Ross Atkins has been binge-watching The Wire. No, not the gritty, award-winning police crime-drama from the early ‘00s, set in the mean streets of Baltimore, but, instead, he’s been watching the MLB waiver wire, a complicated, yet simple, system of player acquisition designed to protect players from eternal minor-league banishment. The plus on the team side is the waiver wire can be used as a means to correct an obvious weakness. For the Jays, that would, be the bullpen.

Consider that the Jays, since the early August trade deadline, have gone down to the “Wire” to acquire: C Nick Raposo (Cards); RHP Tommy Nance (Padres, cash); RHP Luis Frias (D’backs); LHP Easton Lucas (Tigers); RHP Dillon Tate (O’s); RHP Emmanuel Rodriguez (Marlins); RHP Brett de Geus (Marlins); C  Tyler Heineman (Red Sox) and RHP Nick Robertson (Angels). Prior to the deadline, earlier in the regular season, the Jays had used the wire to pick up RHP Ryan Burr (Phillies, cash) and RHP Jose Cuas (Cubs). That is clearly “needle in a haystack” management.

The waiver rules are simple. If a 40-man roster player has no options, or if a team needs a roster spot for a different acquisition, it can place a player on irrevocable waivers. If he is not claimed he can be sent to the original team’s minors and re-added at any time using an open 40-man spot. But if he is claimed within 72 hours he is gone. If there are multiple claims the team with the worst record is awarded the contract. It gives players a chance to stay on 40-man rosters.

But what that claiming priority system means is that there were likely other pitchers in whom the Jays were interested that they may have claimed, but ended up with one of the teams worse than the Jays. For sure, guys like RHP Ron Marinaccio (White Sox) and RHP Mike Baumann (Marlins), may have also been on the Jays’ radar.

The Jays pen had been a 2023 strength        

The Jays bullpen in ’23 was anchored by RHP Jordan Romano, RHP Erik Swanson, RHP Yimi Garcia, LHP Genesis Cabrera, RHP Trevor Richards and RHP Jordan Hicks. With RHP Chad Green coming back from injury late in the season and being under contract for 2024, the future of the Jays’ relief corps seemed bright.

Spring training ’24 arrived and it looked like the real task would be in narrowing it down to eight relievers, with late innings being maybe even two waves deep. The veteran Green, who had been part of terrific teams with the Yankees, looked around the room and was optimistic. Then came injuries, followed by misfortune, capped by underachievement. The results have both disappointed and deceived.

“I don’t necessarily know about leaving spring training,” Green recalled of his positive feelings about the Jays’ relief corps. “Everybody’s obviously optimistic once camp breaks, okay, we’re going to go and have a big year, repeat what we did last year. That’s what we’re going to be. But we also left spring training with two big pieces who were on the injured list to start the season, in Romano and Swanson.

“So, we knew guys were going to have to step up and pitch some big innings, maybe in situations they weren’t accustomed to, but this was also the big leagues and you either have to learn to pitch in those situations, or other stuff happens.

“I think we felt good about where we were at, but we knew it was going to take a lot, especially when you lose two guys like that, that early in the season. It’s going to take a lot of guys to come together to be successful.”

In ’23, for the season, the Jays’ relief stats were: 33-24, 3.68 ERA, 51 SV, 1.226 WHIP, 606K/551IP.

In ’24, the Jays’ relief stats to date, with three games left: 23-27, 4.73 ERA, 36 SV, 1.329 WHIP; 488K/547.2 IP.

“Everyone has injuries and I think the timing of ours was unfortunate,” manager John Schneider offered. “I think it comes down to performance or lack thereof. That’s what we’ve been talking about the last few weeks. It’s been weird when you start a season and you think, okay, this player should do this and this player should do that. Some have, some haven’t and it hasn’t really come at the exact right time when guys are clicking. It’s kind of where we are.

“It comes down to inconsistent performance offensively and some eye-opening performances, bullpen-wise in terms of walks and home runs. That’s not a good equation, right there. Whether it’s a pitch you’re throwing or a pitch being thrown to you, the game is changing and these guys have to figure out a way to keep pace and continue to make adjustments. It’s been a little bit of everything. There’s definitely been accountability from the players in understanding they haven’t lived up to what we thought they would, in some cases.”

What to do about the bullpen

If the bullpen has been the biggest disappointment in 2024, it may also be the easiest weakness to correct over the course of one off-season. Even the best bullpens can be a rollercoaster, year to year. It’s a fact of which Green is well aware.

It may be as easy as understanding that with starting pitchers averaging fewer than six innings per outing, teams may have to ask relievers to more often handle more than three outs, if they had a quick, stress-free inning. When you have a questionable pen and are counting on four different arms to be good in a close game, these Jays have proven that you are tempting fate and the baseball gods.

The other change in Jays’ philosophy might be in allowing the best relievers to go more often on back-to-back days, sometimes even three days in a row. Green vs. the Red Sox showed he was more than just talk. He raised his hand and recorded four important outs on Tuesday in an extra-inning loss, then came back on Wednesday and nailed down a victory in a non-save situation. Leadership!

“You see some organizations do that, as well,” Green said. “Guys pitch the seventh, then pitch the eighth if they had a good seventh. It also depends on the state of your bullpen. What guys are accustomed to doing, because that’s one of the hardest things to do as a reliever, is come in, sit down and go back out. I think it’s something you can definitely learn to do, but it’s definitely harder to do during the season, when you’re trying to win games. It goes back to your best bullpens are ones where your starters are pitching the most (innings).”

Schneider has already thought about that sort of change for his relievers heading towards 2025, especially as he watches playoff contenders down the stretch asking their best relievers to do a little extra in terms of outs and appearances. You can’t put together necessary win streaks over 162 games with a group of one-inning specialists in the pen who the analytics gurus say can’t pitch more than two games in a row.  

“You’ve got to do some stuff,” Schneider said. “The bullpen, you can attack in a variety of ways. You can see it with some of the claims that we’ve made. You can find some really good arms at a very reasonable price. And you can find them within your own organization, through development. That’s kind of where we start, first and foremost.

“We have that (4+ out capability) with certain guys who are tagged as multiple inning relief pitchers. That’s a nice luxury to have. It depends on your personnel, but the buildup can start at spring training, for sure. As the season goes, hopefully more and more guys can do that.”

Green unexpectedly emerged as the closer this year, staying healthy after Romano was injured, Yimi was traded and Mayza, Swanson and Richards underachieved. Green is looking forward to 2025 when some stability hopefully returns to the relief group. And if Schneider is willing to change the organization’s safety-first handling of its key relievers, then a quick bullpen rebuild in a winning situation is possible.

“I think we have to,” Green emphasized. “We have to at least look at it and at least be willing to do that. Because this year did not go according to plan, or what we thought it was going to look like. We have to be able to look ourselves in the mirror and ask, what can we do different? What can we be better at? Is it guys throwing multiple innings more, or is it whatever? It’s definitely something to look at for sure.”