Newcomers Varland and Dominguez will waste no time strengthening Blue Jays' bullpen

General Manager Ross Atkins may have cooked, once again. The two bullpen additions that were acquired at the deadline, Seranthony Dominguez and Louis Varland, are quickly cementing their roles in the backend of the bullpen, a void that desperately needed filling.

In the grand scheme of things, these additions were incredible, and they will both help out in high-leverage situations during the playoff push. That said, Dominguez and Varland are both fresh off of a little bit of a blip, where they allowed one and three earned runs, respectively. Although they were unable to shut down the Royals last night (August 3rd), fans shouldn't be worried in the slightest; everyone is going to have an off day in baseball.

Newcomers Varland and Dominguez will waste no time strengthening Blue Jays' bullpen

Before Dominguez's rare rough day at the office, he's been lights out since being traded within the division, from the Orioles over to the Blue Jays, and the same goes with Louis Varland.

Dominguez's Baseball Savant page lights up bright red across the board, once you exclude his 13.2 walk rate. The signs that he will be a high-leverage arm with potential to close (which he did in his tenure with Philadelphia) are there, and he's been doing it for years. He relies on five pitches: the fastball, which averages 98 mph, the sweeper, split finger, sinker, and curveball.

Dominguez is above the 90th percentile in many categories, including fastball velocity, average exit velocity, whiff rate, strikeout rate, and hard-hit rate, which all add up to a pitcher being a stud, in short. What jumps the most off the page is his ability to miss bats, as his whiff rate of 34.4 is in the 96th percentile.

His ability to induce swing and miss primarily comes from the sweeper and split-finger, which both have batting averages against of a mere .105 this year. Of course, strikeouts are a massive result of this, and he mainly puts batters into their coffins using these two weapons.

Louis Varland, who raised his ERA on the season to just 2.12 during his blip, has the potential to be the best arm in the bullpen. Atkins has praised the fact that he has one of the most, if not the most, deadly fastball-knuckle curveball one-two punches in all of the majors. He proved that to be true in his first outing for the Jays, as his fastball touched 99 mph, which has already tied the fastest pitch thrown by a Blue Jay this year. His knuckle curve, which sports a 38.7 whiff rate on the year, was working too, as he sat down Kyle Isbel with one in the dirt.

The way Varland can create chase (90th percentile) and induce ground balls at a high rate (95th percentile) makes him an absolute weapon for the backend. It's also important to note that Varland used to be a starter, and still has the stuff to keep that option open. When Atkins was asked about his ability to start games in the future, his response was "We're open to that".

Blue Jays fans should not be concerned about Varland and Dominguez's recent rough outings in the slightest, as these two new acquisitions will round out the backend beautifully. The addition of two reliable arms is crucial during a playoff push, especially when you have the Red Sox and Yankees chomping at the bit.