Blue Jays: A growing need for one more arm in the bullpen

Overall, I think the Blue Jays’ bullpen deserves a lot of credit for the 27-20 record that the team sits with today, but it’s clear they could use some help.

Over the weekend the Blue Jays had to heavily rely on their bullpen, and while they contributed to a four-game sweep of the Angels while on the road in L.A., it didn’t take an expert to see that things were getting pretty thin by the end of the series, and Monday’s off day couldn’t come at a better time. It certainly didn’t help that they needed a longer outing from Jose Berrios on Sunday, and instead he couldn’t get out of the third inning.

While I didn’t always agree with Charlie Montoyo’s decisions as he managed the bullpen over the weekend, I’ll admit that he had to turn to a bigger group of relievers that he’d like to trust in high-leverage situations. We saw that even when he wanted to try to use someone like Jordan Romano on a third consecutive day, the results weren’t all that positive, and unfortunately the Jays consistently found themselves playing tight games with the Angels.

In a perfect world they’d have a completely healthy group and everyone would be reaching their potential, but that just hasn’t been the case. They have to be pleased with the contributions they’ve received from the likes of Romano (2.79 ERA), Adam Cimber (2.11), Yimi Garcia (3.31), David Phelps (2.41), and Trevor Richards (3.92), as well as the valuable flexibility that Ross Stripling provides with his ability to fill multiple roles. However, Tim Mayza’s stay on the Injured List has really exposed the need for another left-hander, and unfortunately neither Ryan Borucki or Andrew Vasquez have seized the opportunity.

I would argue that more important than left-handed depth is the need for another late-inning reliever, and preferably someone with big strikeout ability. There was some thought that the Blue Jays might pursue a veteran reliever of this sort of description over the winter, but they settled for cheaper options in Garcia, and Phelps among others. To the credit of the front office, those free agent arms have been effective and mostly reliable.

That said, the heavy use of Romano early in the season is a bit of a concern, even if they’re not likely to keep up the pace of close games that they’ve played so far in 2022. It feels like just about every game requires high-leverage innings from the bullpen, and that’s resulted in 21 appearances for Romano over the course of the team’s first 47 games. That’s not a wholly unsustainable pace, and Romano is the type of athlete that’s built for a heavy workload, but it’s a scary thing to think about if the Canadian right-hander were to start breaking down.

Not only could the Blue Jays use the depth to protect in case Romano needs a bit more rest as the season goes on, but the relief corps would be more effective in general with another reliable pitcher, and a fresh arm could even help take some of the workload off of the overworked bullpen in Toronto these days.

The season is still pretty young so it’s hard to say what kind of trade opportunities would exist at this early stage of the 2022 campaign. However, it would be a more than worthwhile use of time for the front office to be checking in with teams around the league, especially as other clubs look ahead to an eventual reduction in the amount of pitchers that can be carried on a big league roster. Hopefully the June 20 deadline will push some teams to make a few more valuable arms available a little earlier in the season, and that could be a chance for Ross Atkins and company to strike an early deal.

After the Blue Jays arguably waited a little too long to bring in some relief reinforcements in 2021, here’s hoping that they can find another arm (or two) that is capable and comfortable with high leverage innings. At the pace the Blue Jays have been going so far, the need for additional relief depth is growing more by the week.