Blue Jays rumours: Top 5 non-tender candidates to watch this week

4- Another closer type?

One name that I was surprised to see on MLBtraderumors’ list was Matt Barnes of the Boston Red Sox. That said, if they are actually going to let him walk then the Blue Jays should definitely have a look.

Like most of his Red Sox teammates this past season, Barnes didn’t have his best campaign in the big leagues. He served as the closer for most of the year, and finished up with a 4.30 ERA and a 1.391 WHIP over 23 innings pitched, saving nine games. He might not be a dynamic option as a closer, but as a late-inning option, such as the role he served in Boston from 2017-19, you could certainly do worse.

The reason that Barnes finds himself on the list as a potential non-tender candidate is he’s going to make an estimated 4.7 million in 2021 after arbitration. That’s not a tremendous sum by any means, but the Red Sox may not want to pay him that much after a pretty underwhelming 2020 performance.

I’m not sure that I want to see the Blue Jays pay him that much either, but if the Red Sox cut him loose and he becomes a free agent, it wouldn’t surprise me if the right-hander had to settle for less elsewhere.

Barnes wouldn’t represent the type of key bullpen acquisition I hope the Blue Jays make this winter, but he would certainly raise the floor of the group overall. With late-inning experience, he would also provide another safety net for guys like Dolis and Jordan Romano, who look like they’ll be the leading candidates to close in 2021, at least as things stand right now.