The Toronto Blue Jays were active on the free agent front earlier this evening, signing veteran hurler Max Scherzer to a one-year deal.
The Jays needed one more arm to complete the rotation, and although Scherzer has some elevated injury risk after making just nine starts last year, he makes the team stronger on paper and a return to form would be a welcome addition to the Blue Jays.
The signing of Scherzer will impact a couple of players, but right-hander Yariel Rodríguez will feel the most impact compared to the rest of the roster.
After inking a five-year pact with the Blue Jays last winter, Rodríguez made 21 starts for the club last season while working on an apparent innings limit and also missing some time early in the campaign with a back injury. The Cuban product did not pitch much in 2023 as he awaited clearance to become free agent eligible for the MLB, which didn’t come until late in the year. Outside of the World Baseball Classic in March of that year, Rodríguez mostly trained down in the Dominican Republic and outside of competitive game action, hence why the Jays didn’t bullrush him to throw too many innings in his debut campaign.
In 2024, Rodríguez posted a 4.47 ERA through 86 2/3 innings pitched. Rodríguez posted an 8.8 K/9 with a 4.2 BB/9 through his first year in the big leagues, authoring a 1.315 WHIP. The free passes haunted the 27-year-old at times, and even with his respectable 7.7 H/9, he allowed 43 earned runs on the year while compiling a 1-8 record. The right-hander was usually paired with a reliever who would eat up a couple of innings after he left the game to not tax the bullpen.
With Scherzer now in the mix and Bowden Francis finishing last season on an absolute tear, the chances of Rodríguez moving to the bullpen to start the campaign are quite high, barring an injury to one of the core rotation members or Rodríguez dominating in Spring Training with Francis struggling.
Rodríguez has an interesting clause in his contract that, starting this season, prevents him from being moved to the minor leagues without his blessing, almost like a modified minor league option. If he doesn’t crack the rotation and wants to continue starting in triple-A, he can give the okay and continue getting reps down in Buffalo. Should he wish to remain on the active roster, it would be in the bullpen.
This wouldn’t be his first foray into the relief corps, as the right-hander was one of the go-to arms in the bullpen for the Chunichi Dragons in 2022, making 56 appearances for the Japanese club. Across 54 2/3 innings, he collected 60 strikeouts while allowing just 32 hits and seven earned runs, posting a 1.15 ERA and a 0.915 WHIP in the process.
Those numbers, combined with what the Jays need to round out the bullpen, make Rodríguez a good fit as a reliever for 2025.
A fly-ball pitcher by trade, Rodríguez boasts a five-pitch mix that is led by his four-seam fastball and his slider. While he also mixes in a sinker, curveball, and split-finger, if he were to hone in on three to four offerings and drop one pitch (the curveball, for example) in the bullpen, he could see better results as he doesn’t need the additional offerings to get through a lineup three to four times a game. His fastball was turned on quite a bit last year and came in at a -5 pitching run value, so he could choose to lean on his sinker more and try to create more groundballs. This mentality, compiled with his slider that boasted a 33.5% whiff rate, would benefit him well in the relief corps.
Rodríguez also benefits by having to face the order fewer times per outing, a stat that drastically climbs for the right-hander – especially through the third time in the order. While the sample size is limited to just 29 at-bats, the third time through the order saw Rodríguez’s opposing hitters stat line numbers jump over 1.5 points in each measurable, and the OPS values jump from .658 to .688 to 1.041 through the first, second, and third times through the order respectively. Comparison-wise, Sportsnet’s Nick Ashbourne took a look at some players who fell in the same boat as Rodríguez (starter vs. reliever numbers) over the past few seasons, and the values do have some merit for supporting a move for the right-hander to being a reliever for certain measurables.
Looking at the current roster and the bullpen as a whole, the team lacks a genuine middle relief/long-man type of arm—someone who can eat up two to three innings (or more) or start in a pinch when needed, similar to when the Jays employed Ross Stripling a few years ago. When the Jays needed a starter, Stripling answered the call.
Rodríguez would follow similarly, being the go-to guy if a starter gets hurt or there’s a delay of some kind or someone has an off-night. The kind of player who eats up some innings and doesn’t tax the bullpen when things aren’t going the teams’ way – a necessity for a club, especially during the later ‘dog days of summer’.
The move also bodes well because later in the year, the Jays may need Rodríguez to make some spot starts to keep the rotation members fresh for the long haul. Having Rodríguez make a spot start or two here and there benefits the club as a whole, and considering he has shown that he can handle himself when his command is not shaky, it still gives the Jays a chance to win the ballgame.
One of the reasons Rodríguez signed with the Jays is because the team would give him a chance to start games, and while that may be true in a couple of years, this season, he should be in the Blue Jays bullpen.
He will continue to keep getting reps under his belt a the big league level, he will get the odd start from time to time, and fill a role in the Jays’ bullpen that desperately needs to turn things around after a dismal 2024 season.
Rodríguez doesn’t complete the whole bullpen picture for the Jays – there’s a fair argument to be made for an additional left-hander in the group – but he’s the insurance for the rotation and the long-man when things go south and overall, the team is better with him this season working as a reliever versus as a starter.