Blue Jays: An early prediction of the postseason roster

The Bullpen

While the rotation may not be that big of a debate, there’s room for argument in the bullpen. If we count 14 position players and four starters, that leaves space for eight relievers. Teams can carry up to 13 pitchers, but it’s not uncommon to see teams go with just 12 because they can drop at least one starter from the equation, especially in a short series.

You could also include Berrios with the eight names below, giving you nine relievers to work with, and you have to hope that should be plenty. Here’s how I see the Blue Jays drawing it up:

1- Jordan Romano
2- Yimi Garcia
3- Tim Mayza
4- Anthony Bass
5- Adam Cimber
6- David Phelps
7- Trevor Richards
8- Zach Pop
*- Berrios

While they had a dark period during the early/mid portion of the season, the bullpen has been one of the Blue Jays’ recent strengths, and hopefully that will continue into the playoffs. In a perfect world with deep outings from their starters, Schneider has plenty of options to attack opposing hitters with different looks, just as they have in the second half.

The noteworthy names I’ve left out include Yusei Kikuchi and Mitch White from the current active roster, and others like Julian Merryweather, and yes, Nate Pearson. With just six games left in the regular season I feel like this is the group they’ll go with in the first round. The only guy that could be on the bubble would be Pop, but he hasn’t allowed a run over his last seven outings and should have pitched his way on to the postseason roster in my opinion. If they can advance to the second round, my guess would be White joins the bullpen as a long-man, as Berrios would move back into the rotation at that point.

Of course, I could be wrong about a lot of what I just said, even if a lot of the roster decisions are fairly obvious. Thankfully the Blue Jays are mostly healthy as they head into the postseason (knock on wood), and as I’ve said many times throughout the season, they have the potential to do some serious damage if they can get hot at the right time. Regardless of how they work with the 26-man roster, they have the talent to be the kind of team others won’t want to face.