Blue Jays create space on the 40-man roster at the expense of an enticing relief arm

What could have been if Nick Sandlin was healthy in 2025. The 28-year-old right hander came over to the Blue Jays last offseason in a trade with the Cleveland Guardians which was centered around shortstop Andrés Giménez. Sandlin felt like he might have been a thrown in for the deal, but in his brief run with Toronto in 2025, he looked like he could have been a solid piece of the bullpen makeup.

Unfortunately, Sandlin only pitched in 19 games for the Blue Jays this past year. After a recent roster shuffle, Sandlin will have to work his way back into the Blue Jays 2026 bullpen plans. Sandlin was sent outright to Triple-A Buffalo, meaning he is no longer on the Blue Jays 40-man roster.

Blue Jays create space on the 40-man roster at the expense of an enticing relief arm

There are a few things at play here with this roster move for the Blue Jays. The first being that the Blue Jays are actively shopping in the reliever market this offseason and searching for upgrades. According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Blue Jays front office recently met with the agents of Edwin Diaz, indicating how serious Toronto is about those bullpen upgrades.

The second item to consider is that the Rule 5 Draft is coming up next month and there are a couple of players the Blue Jays would likely want to put on the 40-man roster so that they can protect them from selection in that draft. The deadline to put players on the 40-man is coming up on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

The players in Toronto's system that are currently up for grabs are LHP Ricky Tiedemann, OF Yohendrik Pinango, OF Victor Arias, SS Josh Kasevich, and C Edwan Duran. All five of these players are ranked within the top 13 prospects in the Blue Jays system and General Manager Ross Atkins has a difficult decision ahead of him as he tries to figure out which ones will be exposed to the draft and which ones to protect.

In the case of Sandlin, he's currently viewed as a depth piece at the moment, despite his impressive 16.1 innings in which he struck out 16 hitters and allowed four earned runs, while batters hit just .186 against him. An area for Sandlin that may cause concern is his walk rate, which was 4.41, while he has a career walk rate of 4.25. If the Blue Jays are looking for areas to improve their bullpen in 2026, correcting that number specifically will be a must for Sandlin.