Blue Jays: Should they pursue a familiar face and arm?

During the 2021 Blue Jays season the pitching staff has seen an astonishing amount of injuries which has caused the team to go deep into their depth.  With the continuation of a revolving door of pitchers hitting the injured list, the club’s bullpen arms are clearly getting overused and it might be time to seek out some pitchers by way of trade to help them out.

One player the Blue Jays could target is a former eighth round pick of theirs, and that being Kendall Graveman who is now with the Seattle Mariners.

After the 2014 season, then GM Alex Anthopoulos made a huge splash acquiring future MVP Josh Donaldson for a package of four players, one of those players was then 23 year old, right-handed pitcher Kendall Graveman.  Through out his time in the Oakland Athletics organization Graveman became a back of the rotation arm for a few seasons as he posted a 22-24 record and a 4.11 ERA.

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In 2020, Graveman joined the Seattle Mariners and made the rotation out of the Summer Camp, however, after struggling in his first two starts he was moved to the Alternate Training Site.  Graveman was brought back to the club in September as a reliever where he excelled, as he pitched in nine games, allowing runs in just two outings, collecting five holds and a win.  This season, Graveman has been pitching out of the bullpen for the entire season and has been nothing short of impressive as he has collected a win, along with four holds and five saves.  Through 16.2 innings pitched he has allowed just nine base runners (0.54 WHIP) without allowing a run on 17 strikeouts.

Much of Graveman’s success has been off of a hard sinker that has a lot of tailing action, which has been registered between 96-99 mph, while adding in a 90 mph slider.

Graveman is now 30 years old and is in the last year of his contract before becoming a free agent.  The Mariners have had a rocky start to the season and are currently 21-24 on the season and could be sellers sooner than later.  The question would be, what would the asking price be on a pitcher that has only been dominant dating back to last September.

What do you think, should Graveman be a trade target for the Blue Jays?  If so, what kind of package would you be willing to give up?