Toronto Blue Jays: Four Keys To A Successful Offseason

Fix The Bullpen

The Achilles’ heel of the Blue Jays all season long was their bullpen, which just blew too many games for the team to recover from. In-season pickups Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards helped stabilize the unit, but it may have been too late.

Those two, along with Tim Mayza and Jordan Romano, saw the bulk of the high-leverage situations in the last two months or so in 2021.

Cimber, Richards, and Mayza are all arbitration-eligible for the first time in 2022 so they should all be back in the fold. Nate Pearson was called up in September and looked impressive in a few outings. If the club can add a couple more solid options, it would go a long way to turning this weakness into a strength.

Ryan Tepera, who enjoyed four good years with the Jays from 2015-2019, is coming off perhaps his best season. Andrew Chafin was one of the best relievers in baseball in 2021 (0.93 WHIP, 1.83 ERA over 68.2 innings) and would be a great addition.

The Jays could also use at least one more left-handed reliever and Sean Doolittle could be a good fit. He’s a two-time All-Star, World Series champion, and has pitched in plenty of big games.

Executing some of these moves could go a long way towards turning the Blue Jays from a very good team to a great one.

The front office will need to be aggressive and willing to spend freely in order to secure a World Series caliber team.