Every Single 2020 Free Agent the Blue Jays could be Interested in

Oliver Perez

Oliver Perez is one of the true veteran players still standing today in the major leagues. He’s 39 years old and has pitched in the major leagues since the 2002 season (although he spent the whole 2011 season in the minors).

A big reason why he’s still good enough to pitch in the majors is because of his performance, but also partly because he’s a lefty.

In 2020, he posted a 2.00 ERA with an opponent average of .210 in 18 innings pitched across 21 trips to the mound.

It wasn’t too long ago that he was absolutely dominant and almost un-hittable. In the 2018 season, he pitched in 51 games posting a 1.39 ERA with 43 strikeouts over 17 hits given up for an opponent average of .155 in 32.1 innings pitched.

Perez started off his career as a starter but transitioned into a bullpen role a while ago. In 691 career appearances, 496 of those games have come as a reliever out of the bullpen. He hasn’t started a game since 2010.

As the Blue Jays are searching for a lefty, signing Perez to a one-year deal is something they could potentially explore.

Tyler Olson

Tyler Olson is a bit of an outlier as he had one fantastic season with his others being mediocre at best.

In 2017 with Cleveland, he didn’t allow a single run to score in 30 games while posting an opponent average of .188. He didn’t have another season anywhere close to that though.

For the 2020 season, he signed a minor league deal with the Cubs but didn’t pitch in a single game. In fact, he wasn’t even included on the 60 man player pool.

In his career, he holds a 3.83 ERA over 124 games while averaging a strikeout and a hit per inning (94).

The Blue Jays could maybe give him a minor league deal to make him compete for a spot in the bullpen out of Spring Training. It doesn’t hurt to have him pitch in Spring Training to see what he can do.