Bullpen overhaul on agenda for Jays this winter

TORONTO — It’s a very simplistic explanation in a complicated sport, but a bad bullpen is one of two reasons the Blue Jays’ season went south.

The lineup fixes — or non-fixes like last winter, perhaps — will get the lion’s share of ink this off-season, simply because of the importance of scoring more runs and some of the names potentially involved.

But the bullpen needs an overhaul, and in the end it may be the key to the front office’s dream of contending again.

When the Jays owned one of the best overall pitching staffs in baseball from top to bottom in 2023, it was the foursome of Jordan Romano, Tim Mayza, Erik Swanson and Yimi Garcia holding leads and putting out fires in the late innings.

Last year, 3.68 ERA, eighth in baseball. This year, 4.80 ERA, 28th in baseball.

Simple equation.

Now, Mayza and Garcia are gone, while Swanson and Romano have both alternated between injured and not very good this season, leaving even more uncertainty than usual heading into 2025.

At this point, veteran Chad Green is the healthiest and most reliable option they have, which points to the amount of work needed on that area of the roster.

There’s a reason they didn’t trade the 33-year-old at the deadline, even if teams were calling about the right-hander with one year at $10.5 million remaining on his deal.

“I had a talk with Ross probably three or four days before the deadline, but that’s exactly what they were, just kind of rumours,” Green said. “He kind of told me my odds of moving were pretty low. Obviously, you see what people post online, but I didn’t put too much stock into it.”

Now more than two years removed from Tommy John surgery back in May of 2022, Green has started to look more and more like the version we saw with the New York Yankees when he was considered one of the elite setup men in the game.

Through 43 appearances, Green holds a pristine 1.65 ERA, a number that isn’t exactly supported by his peripherals, but his 95-mph velocity has returned (even if the strikeouts haven’t) and it’s impossible to argue with the results.

“Last year, I was just trying to get my feet wet again,” Green explained. “When you’re off for 14 or 15 months, you’re kind of relearning how to do everything again and getting used to the workload and this type of environment.

“Honestly, it probably took longer than I expected to feel good again. Even though I was pitching in games I really didn’t feel like myself until the last month or six weeks.”

Green came into the season with 11 career saves on his resume, but he’s been able to pile up 15 of them for the out-of-contention Jays with Romano sidelined by elbow surgery.

Romano is currently battling the calendar to make it back for a couple of meaningless outings to finish out the year, but considering he’s heading into his final season before free agency, there’s no reason for him to push it.

At the same time, Swanson has turned his season around a touch since being banished to Triple-A, posting a 3.46 ERA since returning to the majors in late July.

In other words, past Green, there’s zero certainty and you could argue the entire group needs to be reconstructed.

Luckily, as usual, there’s a ton on the free-agent market this winter.

Here’s a brief look at the top 15 relievers currently slated for free agency and their age for 2025:

Clay Holmes, NYY, age-32
Jeff Hoffman, PHI, age-32
Tanner Scott, SD, age-30
Aaron Bummer, ATL, age-31
Carlos Estevez, PHI, age-32
Kirby Yates, TEX, age-38
David Robertson, TEX, age-40
Aroldis Chapman, PIT, age-37
Kenley Jansen, BOS, age-37
Paul Sewald, AZ, age-35
Yimi Garcia, SEA, age-34
Blake Treinen, LAD, age-37
Daniel Hudson, LAD, age-38
Kendall Graveman, HOU, age-34
A.J. Minter, ATL, age-31

A handful of those names will be really, really good next year. And a handful will make teams regret the investment fairly quickly.

It’s the most volatile group in baseball for every single club every single year, but also one of the most vital to get right, leaving the front office with some key reliever acquisitions to make.

Some luck is also needed next year, and Green understands that.

“There’s just a lot of stuff that goes into competing over a long season,” he said. “Losing key guys in the bullpen and some starting pitchers getting hurt and people getting off to slow starts, whatever it is, looking back, there’s just so much that has to go right for a team to make the playoffs and make a deep run in October.

“It just seems like early on in the season we couldn’t get on that stretch where we’d win nine in a row or something like. That’s normally what it takes to give yourself a little cushion. You can’t win the division in April, but you can sure lose it and there’s a lot of factors that get played into that.”