Blue Jays reportedly reach agreement with Hyun-Jin Ryu

According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Toronto Blue Jays have reportedly reached an agreement with starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu.

The reported deal will see the Blue Jays pay Hyun-Jin Ryu $80 million over the next four seasons. Ryu instantly becomes the ace on a team that was starving for pitching depth heading into the offseason. There also will be no opt-out clause attached to the contract.

Ryu was the last of the top free-agent pitchers remaining on the open market and it appeared it may come down to a bidding war between the Angels and Dodgers, however, the Blue Jays managed to lure a Scott Boras client north of the border which is unprecedented.

The 32-year old finished second in NL Cy Young voting this past season behind Jacob deGrom. Ryu went 14-5 with a 2.32 earned run average and an 8.0 SO/9 rate with a 5.1 WAR in 29 starts for the Dodgers last season.

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The South Korean native sports a 54-33 record with a respectable 2.98 earned run average with a 13.5 WAR in 126 games over his six-year MLB career in Los Angeles. Prior to coming to America, Ryu spent seven seasons with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization where he put up similar numbers going 98-52 with a tidy 2.80 earned run average with am 8.8 SO/9 rate.

Ryu will now join a much-improved rotation of Matt Shoemaker, Tanner Roark, Chase Anderson and Ryan Borucki with the likes of Trent Thornton, Shun Yamaguchi and Anthony Kay on the outside looking in.

The southpaw has made only one career start in Toronto registering the win while surrendering four runs scattered over nine hits across 5.1 innings of work.

Ross Atkins and the rest of the Jays brain trust deserve the kudos on this one, they were rumoured to have interest in Ryu all offseason and ponied up the money to land the ace they desperately needed for the rotation.