Blue Jays: Comparable Relievers on the Trade Market

Past Blue Jays Trades

The Jays themselves have been a part of several deadline deals involving relievers at the deadline. As with all deadline deals, some have been prosperous for the boys in blue, while others have been forgettable, to say the least.

Most recently, the club picked up veteran reliever Mark Lowe at the deadline in exchange for farmhand Rob Rasmussen and prospects Jacob Brentz and Nick Wells. Rasmussen was more or less a throw-in, and neither Brentz nor Wells were ranked particularly high on the Jays top prospects list. In fact, neither had pitched above Rookie ball prior to being traded.

In the first half of the season, Lowe pitched to a stellar 1.00 ERA with 47 strikeouts in just 36.0 innings and was reasonably solid for the Jays for the remainder of the season. Despite the relevance of this trade, it’s worth taking into account that Lowe had never really experienced success at the major league level before the 2015 season, and was thus not deemed as valuable as others available at the time.

Currently, Jacob Brentz is playing for the High-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, while Nick Wells has been up and down the ranks of the Seattle Mariners lower minors since being acquired. Rasmussen, now 29, retired at the end of the 2015 season after being released by the Mariners and attempting an unsuccessful comeback with the Los Angeles Angels.

Other notable trades made by the Jays involving relievers include those of Mark Eichorn in 1992, Jeremy Accardo in 2006 and Joe Smith in 2017. While it’s important to note that Accardo wasn’t a free agent at the end of the season, his trade can still serve as a measuring stick for other swaps involving relievers.