Blue Jays going to arbitration with the pitcher who may have saved their season

The Toronto Blue Jays had four players they had to negotiate with ahead of Thursday's (Dec. 8) deadline. That was the final date in which teams could offer a contract to arbitration eligible players. The players could accept the contract, which three Blue Jays' did, or go to an arbitration hearing before the beginning of Spring Training.

Daulton Varsho ($10.75) Ernie Clement ($4.6) and Tyler Heineman ($1.2) all settled on deals that came in above their projected salary figures. The lone hold out is Eric Lauer, a guy who may have saved the Blue Jays entire 2025 season.

Blue Jays going to arbitration with the pitcher who may have saved their season

Let's remember where the Blue Jays were when Lauer made his first start on May 17. They were two game under .500. Max Scherzer had only thrown three innings and wasn't set to rejoin the rotation for at least another month. And Bowden Francis was floundering as the number five starter. But at Rogers Centre, in that game against the Detroit Tigers, Lauer pitched three innings of three hit ball and allowed one run in an eventual 2-1 walk-off win for the Blue Jays.

After another start, he was sent back to the bullpen where he was incredibly effective over three multi-inning outings, allowing no runs in 9.2 innings pitched with eight strikeouts. His next time out, he got the start and went five innings, allowing two earned runs in a 5-2 win in St. Louis against the Cardinals. That started a string of success as a starting pitcher for Lauer.

In 11 games, Lauer went 6-1, the team went 9-2 and Lauer pitched 57.2 effective innings in the middle of the season against some big opponents. He earned the win on June 29 against Boston at Fenway Park. He picked up wins over the Giants, and the Tigers and the Rangers. He racked up 59 strikeouts, pitched to a 2.97 ERA and gave the Blue Jays some much needed stability to take the pressure off of the top three in the rotation of Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and José Berrios while they waited for Scherzer to rejoin them.

At the end of August, Shane Bieber joined the rotation and in September, along came Trey Yesavage as a rookie call up. Lauer was moved back into a swing role, and was once again very effective when called upon. In September he only threw 12 innings, but only allowed four earned runs, got 11 strikeouts and helped the Blue Jays go 6-1 in the seven outings he appeared in.

So after all that work in 2025, he came to the table with a number in mind for his 2026 salary: $5.75 million. The Blue Jays filed at $4.4 million and the two sides have decided to take this thing to court. It seems silly sometimes to go to an arbitration hearing over a matter that could be settled by a difference of just over a million dollars, but that's exactly where the Blue Jays and Lauer are headed.

Lauer's arbitration case is an interesting one to follow. Before he joined the Blue Jays ahead of last season, Lauer has six big league season's under his belt, but left to play in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) in 2024. Before he left for the KBO he had built his arbitration salary up to $5.075 million. According to Blue Jays beat reporter Ben Nicholson-Smith, other players who come back from playing in Asia have historically gotten above their previous arbitration number when they did return to MLB.

The Blue Jays have already spent a record amount of money for the franchise this offseason and that's before factoring in to the equation these arbitration numbers. The Blue Jays went above the projections for the other three players and their number for Lauer was right on the dot for the projected salary. Lauer earned $1.8 million in 2025 according to spotrac.com and so whether he gets what he wants, or settles for what the Blue Jays offer him, it will be a substantial increase.