Blue Jays reportedly going after one of the big dogs in the relief market

The Toronto Blue Jays are not married to the idea of having Jeff Hoffman remain as their closer next year. That idea was floated out by Toronto's own General Manager Ross Atkins during a year end media conference, and just over a week later, it appears Atkins was serious about that tidbit.

While not a lot of major news dropped from the actual meetings, there were a few nuggets sprinkled over the last few days, including a piece of information that could set up the Blue Jays for a major bullpen revamp.

Blue Jays reportedly going after one of the big dogs in the relief market

According to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, the Blue Jays met with the agents of closer Edwin Diaz. The 31-year-old had a tremendous season with the New York Mets, pitching to a 3.0 bWAR with a 1.63 ERA in 62 games. In 66.1 innings pitched, Diaz had 98 strikeouts and only allowed 12 earned runs and walking just 21 batters. He was named an All-Star for the third time in his career and posted his the second best ERA+ of his nine year career of 248.

Rosenthal also reported that Diaz says his return to the Mets, who has spent the last seven years with, is 50-50 and that he is seeking a deal in the five-year, $102 million range. The Blue Jays, under Atkins, have been relatively reluctant to hand out huge contracts to relievers in the past. They've done a lot of the heavy lifting internally or via the trade market, but going into this offseason upgrading the bullpen looks to be a serious priority.

The reliever market has plenty of high end options with guys who have made a career on getting used late in the game, and in high-leverage situations. Diaz is arguably the very top end of that group and he would immediately deepen any bullpen that he is brought in to.

While the Blue Jays for the past several years have notoriously been linked to a lot of big name free agents and have seldom reeled them in. However, it's worth noting that Atkins made it known that this is where they would spend some time shopping and now with the offseason firmly underway, it seems like the Blue Jays are going all in on securing a top end arm for the bullpen.