Blue Jays: Cimber’s Great, But What’s Next For The Bullpen?

After watching his depleted bullpen hand over countless leads late in games, General Manager Ross Atkins had seen enough and was able to work out a trade to acquire veteran right hander, Adam Cimber from the Miami Marlins.  Cimber, a four year veteran at the big league level is in the midst of a fantastic season, posting a career low 2.88 ERA in 34 ⅓ innings for the Marlins.

Bringing Cimber into the fold is a great start to repairing what has been a dreadful bullpen over the last month.  The Oregon native ranks 19th amongst all relievers with at least 100 batted balls against in barrel percentage (according to Baseball Savant) and is a master at eliminating hard contact.

Cimber immediately improves the Blue Jays bullpen, and gives manager Charlie Montoyo a legitimate arm to pitch before closer Jordan Romano.  There’s no doubt that the relief core is stronger than it was a couple of days ago.  Even though it has been reinforced, more needs to be done if this team is going to make a real push for the playoffs.  A playoff caliber team needs more than just two relievers if it is going to withstand playing meaningful games in September, and hopefully October.

Despite the amount of success Cimber has enjoyed this season, he hasn’t pitched in a ton of leverage situations for the Marlins and may be better suited in a middle relief role.  The Jays need more depth in the back of their bullpen and because of this, they may need to go out and give up a little more prospect capital to acquire an arm that can pitch in high leverage situations, and even close games if necessary.

Thankfully, there is never a shortage of relief options at the deadline and as July 30th roles closer, more and more teams will turn into sellers and look to move on from some of their leverage relievers, in hopes of adding young talent for a future playoff run.

I wanted to break down three potential trade targets that I think would be fantastic additions to follow up the Cimber trade and add to the back end of the bullpen which is still lacking depth.

José Alvarado LHP PHI

The name José Alvarado should be a familiar one to Jays fans.  The Venezuelan-born lefty spent four years in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, where he appeared in 149 games, a number of those coming against the Blue Jays.

Alvarado is known as a pitcher who has a phenomenal arsenal but struggles with command, which has prevented him from fully tapping into his potential thus far in his career.  The left-hander has one of the best fastballs in all of baseball.  Alvarado’s heater sits in the upper 90’s and regularly touches triple digits, with a tremendous amount of arm side run.  He combines his fastball with a mid 90’s slider and a slower curveball that has plenty of movement.  When Alvarado has all three pitches working, he provides a super uncomfortable at-bat for hitters, due to the elite velocity and insane amount of movement he possesses.

The issue for Alvarado is that he rarely has all of his offerings on point, and because of this, he struggles to throw strikes consistently.  Over the course of his career, the hard-throwing lefty has walked a whopping 5.3 batters per nine innings.  This year alone he’s allowed 7.4 free passes per nine but has still managed to post a very impressive 2.79 ERA in 29 innings of work.

Alvarado has become a quality relief pitcher, despite his erratic control thanks to his strikeout stuff, as he is able to pitch himself out of jams due to how electric his arsenal is.  If the left-hander was able to harness his command and wasn’t always pitching himself in and out of trouble, that already impressive ERA would be a lot lower than where it is right now.

The Blue Jays have pitching coach Pete Walker at their disposal, who was able to fix a similar issue with Robbie Ray this past offseason, which has turned him into a legitimate All-Star candidate.  I believe that if Walker is given the opportunity to get his hands on Alvarado, that he has the chance to work the same magic that he used on Ray.  If he’s able to do so, Alvarado has the arsenal to turn into one of the better pitchers in the game, and a true shutdown reliever that can come in and pitch in high leverage situations.

Alvarado does have two years of control left after this season.  Philadelphia was a team trying to compete this year and with the amount of money they have invested in their core, I believe they will attempt to do the same next season.  They may want to hold onto Alvarado to help them down the road, however, the Phillies may be frustrated with the lefty’s erratic command and could be ready to move off from him because of this.

If GM Dave Dombrowski is willing to listen to calls on Alvarado, I think he could be an interesting addition to this ball club.  He’s already a quality reliever and would instantly become one of the best in the Blue Jays bullpen, but also has the upside to turn into a special talent, he just has to harness his command to do so.

Taylor Rogers LHP MIN

The Minnesota Twins have been one of the more disappointing teams so far this season.  After making the playoffs in three of the last four years, most people around the sport expected the Twins to push the loaded Chicago White Sox for the Central Division title this season.

Unfortunately, due to injuries and poor on-field performances, the Twins have failed to live up to these lofty expectations and currently sit third in the American League Central, 12 games out of a playoff spot.  Calling the first half of this season dreadful is an understatement for GM Thad Levine and his ball club.  With how slowly they’ve started, Minnesota is headed in the direction of becoming sellers, barring a major turnaround in the next couple of weeks.

If the Twins decide to sell, there are going to be a number of intriguing names on their roster who draw interest from teams, with the likes of Jose Berrios, Michael Pineda, and Andrelton Simmons all being players that could help contending clubs.  If the Blue Jays are committed to repairing their bullpen, one name on the Twins roster they should definitely keep an eye on is Taylor Rogers, who’s quietly become one of the best left-handed relievers in all of baseball.

Rogers has been a beast for the Twins ever since debuting back in 2016.  The southpaw has posted a 3.06 ERA, a 10.1 K/9 ratio, and has saved 48 ball games during his first six seasons at the big league level.  The Colorado product is a pure fastball-slider pitcher, with a heater that resides in the mid 90’s and one of the best sliders in baseball that Rogers has great feel for and is able to generate a lot of swings and misses with.

The Colorado native has utilized his deadly combination to put together a career year.  Rogers has posted a career-low 2.53 ERA, along with being in the 100th chase rate percentile and the 91st percentile in walks allowed, according to Baseball Savant.

Bringing Rogers aboard would give Montoyo another dominant arm in the back end of the bullpen that has experience closing games.  It would also give the club a true number one lefty, bumping Ryan Borucki into the second left-hander role and mitigating Tim Mayza to a depth piece, which would strengthen the left side of the pen as a whole.

Rogers does have one more year of arbitration after this season which will inflate his price point if the Twins decide to shop him.  As long as top prospects like Austin Martin, Gabriel Moreno, and Simeon Woods Richardson aren’t involved in the deal, I would be fine overpaying a little, to get two years of a dominant reliever.