In Joaquin Benoit, Blue Jays have found Jason Grilli 2.0

The Toronto Blue Jays entered 2016 with a relatively strong back end to their bullpen. Ahead of Roberto Osuna, Brett Cecil and Drew Storen offered a formidable duo in the seventh and eighth innings while one of Gavin Floyd or Jesse Chavez hoped to step forward into a high-leverage role.

Oh, how the times have changed.

Following a series of trades, injuries, and poor performances, Osuna is now preceded by an oddball Rule 5 pick and a pair of relievers born in the year that Rod Stewart topped the charts with “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna be Alright)”.

Jason Grilli‘s arrival from the Atlanta Braves in a brilliant stroke of buy-low capitalization was step one in this equation, and in 32 appearances, the right-hander has posted a 1.42 ERA with 12.8 strikeouts per nine innings. In doing so, he’s made his $3 million option for 2017 go from unlikely to attractive.

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Flying curiously under the radar, however, is Joaquin Benoit, who was acquired on July 26th from the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Drew Storen and cash. It was the classic case of two teams — and two players — needing fresh starts.

Since arriving, Benoit hasn’t allowed a single run to cross in his 13.1 innings over 14 appearances. He’s needed to dance around some base runners as his strikeout and walk numbers haven’t been where they should, but therein lies the simultaneous risk and beauty of a deadline reliever: all a team needs is 20-to-25 great innings, and anything is possible in a small sample size.

Last night in Baltimore, Benoit threw a perfect ninth inning on 20 pitches, striking out two. Eight of his appearances with the Blue Jays have come in the seventh inning, where he figures to slot in down the stretch, and the others have come even deeper in the game.

This shouldn’t come as a great surprise, even despite Benoit’s age and struggles with the Mariners earlier this season. From 2010 through to 2015, Benoit was one of baseball’s most consistent relief pitchers with a 2.35 ERA over 388 games.

His profile still doesn’t match that of Grilli, whose setup role naturally gives him the spotlight. Frankly, Grilli’s firework shows and fist pumps also help his case and naturally make him stand out from some of Toronto’s other relievers. It’s part of what Blue Jays fans love, and should love, about Grilli.

In Benoit, though, the quiet value is helping to keep a bullpen afloat despite it’s struggles to lock down consistent left-handed options.