Blue Jays: 3 relief pitchers the Jays should be looking at in free agency

While this offseason has not been a failure for the Blue Jays by any stretch of the imagination, there is still work to be done by Ross Atkins and Co.

After adding Kevin Kiermaier and Chris Bassitt in free agency and then swinging a jaw-dropping trade that sent two popular Jays to the desert in exchange for Daulton Varsho, one major area that needs improvement is the big league bullpen.

Above all else, the club needs to bring at least one more left-handed pitcher into the mix. As of right now, Tim Mayza is the only lefty projected to start the year in the bullpen with Yusei Kikuchi teetering back and forth between No. 5 starter and long-relief option.

Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson figure to be oft-used, late-inning options with Anthony Bass and Adam Cimber continuing to be reliable middle relief/setup men. Yimi García is also on hand after appearing in 61 games last season for the club, posting an ERA+ of 126.

When taking a look at the remaining free agent relievers on the market, there are actually quite a few names that could be of interest.

Let's get to it and look at three relievers the Jays could target to fill out the bullpen.

LHP Zack Britton

While we haven't seen much of Britton over the past few years thanks to injuries and haven't seen an above-average version of him in even longer, he is one I believe the Jays should be targeting.

Britton, 35 a few days ago, has been exceptional over the course of his big leaugue career that's already up to 12-years long. The crafty southpaw has a ton of late-inning experience as well as plenty of closing experience.

Not one to shy away from throwing strikes, Britton possesses a lethal sinker that he uses as his main pitch. He pairs the heavy sinkerball with a sweeping curveball, showing all the makings of a groundball pitcher.

Over the course of his career, Britton has posted an ERA under 2.00 five times, which is insane. His career ERA+ is 135 and he is also the proud owner of one of the best relief pitching seasons of this generation back in 2016 when he posted an ERA of 0.54 in 69 games for the Orioles.

What will make someone like Britton especially of interest to the Blue Jays is the fact that he is likely to come cheap. Since he hasn't been able to pitch regularly in a few years now, his value is at an all-time low but there's reason to believe he still has something left in the tank.

RHP Alex Reyes

I could keep going with the left-handers (sorry Brad Hand and Will Smith) but Alex Reyes is too good to pass up.

Reyes, a former highly-touted prospect of the St. Louis Cardinals, is yet another one of those stories about a young pitcher who shows so much promise but just cannot for the life of him stay healthy.

Since his big league debut in 2016, Reyes has been placed on the injured list five separate times. Tommy John surgery kept him out of action in 2017, a season-ending LAT strain in 2018, a season-ending right shoulder injury came up in 2020 and another shoulder injury kept him out of the entire 2022 campaign.

To this point, he has only pitched in 145 innings across parts of five seasons. My argument for the Jays interest isn't going in the right direction so let me tell you what he does well.

When Reyes is on, he has shown that he is an arm capable of truly elite things. In 2021, his first and only full season in the majors, the Cardinals decided to give up on him as a starting pitcher and instead use him in a brand new role: closer.

In 69 games that year, he went 10-8 with a 3.24 ERA, 122 ERA+ and 11.8 SO/9 to go along with 29 saves. He made his first-career All-Star Game appearance as well and (finally) gave the fans the long-awaited breakout season that everyone knew was coming.

When he's on, his fourseam fastball, the primary pitch in his repertoire, comfortably sits at 97mph and even reaches triple digits. He pairs that with a wiepout slider that often makes the opposition look silly in the batter's box.

While the inning count isn't quite there over the course of Reyes' career, there's something to be said about the fact that batters have hit a combined .189 off of him, including just .176 in his breakout 2021 performance.

As I did with Matt Moore on the previous slide, let me show you some of the numbers for Reyes in his elite 2021 season to show how he stacked up against the competition.

Something to keep in mind is that the Cardinals chose to non-tender Reyes instead of paying him just $3M in arbitration. Now that he has hit the free agent market, there's little doubt in my mind that his new contract will be even lower than his arb number for St. Louis. For the Jays, this should be a no-brainer signing.