Three players we’re glad the Blue Jays did not sign in the offseason

This past offseason, the Toronto Blue Jays seemed to be one of the busiest teams in the league. They had numerous starters like Marcus Semien, Robbie Ray, and Steven Matz all heading to free agency while the front office also seemed to be interested in pretty much every premier free agent, with the Jays linked to many different players before and after the lockout.

The Jays reportedly offered contracts (or at least kicked the tires) to pitchers Justin Verlander and Noah Syndergaard before they signed elsewhere while also tendering contracts or seeming interested in Corey Seager, Brad Miller, Joc Pederson, and Corey Dickerson, yielding the same results.

Overall, the haul for the franchise was signing Kevin Gausman, Yusei Kikuchi, and Yimi Garcia while trading for Matt Chapman, Raimel Tapia, and Bradley Zimmer prior to Opening Day. Some of the deals the Blue Jays made are not paying immediate returns or are benefitting the squad right now (Kikuchi and his struggles for example) but looking back, the front office did check off quite a few boxes in adding a premier starting pitcher, a strong back end bullpen piece, offloading Randal Grichuk and roughly half of his contract (they owe the other half), and snagging a premier defensive third baseman with some pop in the bat.

The Blue Jays were one of the most active teams this past offseason but they also got lucky when it comes to a few players that decided to sign elsewhere and struggled to play well with their new organizations.

With the season now heading into the middle of August, looking back at the Blue Jays’ flurry of activity, there are a handful of players the club is probably lucky they missed out on for one reason or another. There will always be the ones that got away (Verlander on the Jays squad this year would have been amazing) but others who would have dragged the team down far more than this year’s signings/trades.

Let’s take a quick look at three players that the Blue Jays were reportedly interested in (and even offered contracts too) but were lucky that they decided to sign elsewhere.

Eduardo Rodriguez

Signed a five-year $77 million contract with the Detroit Tigers

After spending six years with the Boston Red Sox organization, left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez was one of the first starting pitchers off the board this past offseason. After rejecting the Red Sox qualifying offer, he signed a five-year deal with the Detroit Tigers and became one of their veteran pitchers on the roster, joined by the likes of Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, and Matt Manning amongst others. With the Red Sox, the Venezualan product owned a 4.16 ERA with 892 strikeouts through 159 appearances.

The Blue Jays were probably upset the left-hander was leaving the AL East, as he struggled when facing the club during his time with Boston, authoring a 5.20 ERA through 17 outings (16 starts) while allowing 17 home runs through 90.0 innings with a 1.300 WHIP. The Jays also reportedly seemed interested in the lefty, as the club was looking for starter options with Ray and Matz likely leaving the team for free agency.

Rodriguez decided to take his talents to Detroit and his first season with the Tigers is not going so well, as the veteran pitcher has only made eight starts this year and has allowed 19 earned runs through 39.0 innings of work while on track to post one of his lowest K/9 rates over his career (7.8). He suffered an injury to his ribs and was placed on the IL but informed the team shortly after that he would be taking a leave of absence for personal matters. It was even reported that the Tigers were having trouble getting into contact with Rodriguez while he was on the restricted list but he is now back pitching and rehabbing in the minors to get game ready, with the club likely gaining him back in a couple of weeks time. He has not pitched for the Tigers since May 18th.

The Blue Jays have already had to deal with Hyun Jin Ryu being out for the season and while we can bemoan the Kikuchi starts, at least he was healthy and able to pitch for a majority of the season (minus the month with a neck strain). If the Jays had signed Rodriguez and had to deal with a similar absence, it would have really strained the rotation depth that the club doesn’t necessarily have given the Ryu injury putting Stripling into the rotation already. Maybe the Rodriguez deal doesn’t give the Jays the finances to sign Gausman as well, who is having a far superior season with the Jays compared to the Tigers starter.

Overall, the deal could turn out to be a great sign for the Tigers in one of the four other seasons he is signed for but for this campaign, it seems to be a bust so far.

Steven Matz

Signed a four-year deal worth $44 million with the St. Louis Cardinals

Similar to this piece by fellow contributor Graeme Wallace, the Blue Jays appeared to have dodged a bullet when it comes to Steven Matz taking his talents to St. Louis rather than re-signing with the Blue Jays. The Jays did offer him a multi-year deal and he was on the line of whether the club should present him with a qualifying offer but ultimately, neither materialized for the Jays and Matz went to the Cardinals.

Although he pitched well in his lone season with the Jays to the tune of a 3.82 ERA through 29 starts, Matz was not able to recreate the same stats this season with his new club. Through 10 games, the southpaw has struggled in Missouri, authoring a 5.70 ERA through 42.2 innings with a 1.313 WHIP. His FIP at 3.94 indicates his team might not be helping him out so much but the reason the Jays dodged a bullet is more so due to his injuries, as not only has he been limited to just ten starts, he is now likely out for the season with a torn MCL.

If the Jays had brought Matz back into the rotation, compounded with the Ryu injury, this Jays rotation would be looking a whole hell of a lot different than what we currently see. As I mentioned earlier, the Jays starting pitching depth is not as deep as we would like to see and that would surely be tested with Ryu and Matz out unless the front office made some bigger trade deadline moves for the rotation.

Overall, the four-year $44 million dollar deal was good for Matz but likely too rich for the Blue Jays moving forward, however, we do not know at this time what the Jays offer to Matz before he went to St. Louis. We shall wait and see what the next season of the multi-year deal brings but so far, it’s looking alright for the Blue Jays.