Are the Blue Jays willing to overlook this reliever's disastrous end to the season?

The Toronto Blue Jays have expressed an interest in revamping the bullpen again in 2026. It was a priority when they had one of the worst bullpens in 2024, and their game plan worked to a degree in 2025. Bringing back Yimi Garcia, adding Jeff Hoffman, and graduating some key rookies like Mason Fluharty and Braydon Fisher, the 2025 Blue Jays bullpen was much better.

But there's another level the Blue Jays 'pen can reach and Toronto seems ready to dish out some cash to make it happen. They have previously been linked to Edwin Diaz, while they were also in talks with Raisel Iglesias before he re-signed with the Braves. Now, a Blue Jays beat reporter says Toronto is interested in a reliever who was one of their targets at the trade deadline this past season.

Are the Blue Jays willing to overlook this reliever's disastrous end to the season?

In a recent article, Blue Jays beat reporter Keegan Matheson says the Blue Jays have remained interested in potentially adding Ryan Helsley to the team. He says, "Edwin Díaz is the top reliever on the market and will command a large contract -- something the Blue Jays haven’t handed out often to relievers. Devin Williams and Robert Suarez are also available. Keep Ryan Helsley’s name in mind. The Blue Jays had talks with the Cardinals about Helsley at the lastTrade Deadline, and that interest hasn’t disappeared."

What makes that news questionable is the fact that Helsley had an awful finish to the 2025 season. After spending his first seven seasons in the big leagues as one of the premier closers in the league with the St. Louis Cardinals, Helsley was dealt to the New York Mets on July 30 for three minor league players and his stint in the Big Apple did not go the way he wanted.

In 22 games, Helsley pitched to a 7.20 ERA allowing 16 earned runs on 25 hits. While he struck out 22 batters, he also had a BB/9 rate of 5.0. Hitters batted .301 against him with a .933 OPS and .362 BABIP. What the Blue Jays, and any other potential suitor, has to figure out is if that 22 game sample was just a blip on the radar, or is the 31-year-old Helsley no longer an elite late inning option.

FanGraphs projects him to bounce back with his strikeout rate climbing back to career norms and his walk rate coming down. They also don't foresee him continuing to give up consistent contact with the BABIP coming down to .290 from .342. The numbers also feel a bit inflated as most of the damage came within a 10 game stretch for Helsley between August 10 and September 3. Within that time, Helsley gave up 14 earned runs in 7.2 innings, blowing up his ERA to 16.43 with four blown saves.

In Helsley's final eight appearances, he compiled a 2.00 ERA, giving up just two earned runs in nine innings, striking out nine and giving up six hits. It was mostly in mop up duty for a Mets team that was struggling toward the finish line, but it did help Helsley right himself somewhat from what was a disastrous month in New York.

Helsely's fastball velocity ranked in the 99th percentile, but he also gave up a lot of hard contact with the average exit velocity against his pitches sitting at 91.0, which was in the bottom 7% of MLB. He's got a track record that speaks for itself, with an 8.2 bWAR in 275 games with the Cardinals, while striking out 355 batters in 299.2 innings pitched and an ERA+ of 154. The Blue Jays would no doubt be attracted to his career WHIP of 1.131 his career HR/9 rate of 0.8 and career SO/9 rate of 10.7.

Those are numbers that would certainly play in a Blue Jays bullpen revamp. However, the Blue Jays aren't the only team interested in Helsley and some teams have even suggested they would like to bring Helsley in as a starter. Helsely has never started a game in the major leagues, but the Tigers are one of the teams thinking outside the box here according to Ken Rosenthal.

Whether Helsely wants to move to a rotation role or remain in a spot he has occupied for his entire career thus far will be an interesting story to watch as the winter moves along. For now though, even if the Blue Jays want to bring him into the fold there's no guarantee he would automatically come in and assume the closer's role from Hoffman.