Blue Jays: Upside with injury risk? This market’s got it

If the Blue Jays are willing to gamble a bit this offseason, there could be plenty of value coming from free agents who also have a fair bit of injury risk.

In some ways I’m sure the front office will take a lesson or two from their 2021 season when injuries really hampered the bullpen. In particular, the Jays signed Kirby Yates to a potentially bargain rate of 5.5 million for last season, only to see him hit the Injured List during Spring Training and miss the entire season. Unfortunately the same happened to another high leverage reliever in David Phelps, and several other pitchers had injury issues to deal with, especially early in the season.

That said, if you safeguard injury risk with enough depth then you can afford to gamble a bit. Looking at the current starting rotation, I feel like the Jays need to secure at least one more reliable arm to join Jose Berrios, Alek Manoah, and Hyun Jin Ryu. However, I believe that there is enough depth in the organization that the Jays could afford to make a calculated gamble, and the starting pitching market has a few options that could fit the bill.

My preferred path for the Blue Jays this offseason is to see them re-sign Robbie Ray to lock down the top four in their rotation, but failing that there are a few creative options the Blue Jays could pursue. Some of them come with a fair bit of risk, but the payoff makes them worth considering.