Blue Jays sign eight-year veteran to minor league contract

On Saturday, the Toronto Blue Jays made an interesting signing, as they inked right-handed reliever Matt Wisler to a minor league contract. Signed during the 2022-23 offseason by the Detroit Tigers to a minor league contract, he had been pitching for their Triple-A affiliate Toledo Mud Hens until his recent release on August 5th by the ballclub.

Wisler made his MLB debut back in 2015 with the Atlanta Braves and has since played for seven different teams over his eight-year career in the big leagues. He finally established himself as a serviceable solid MLB reliever in 2020 while playing for the Minnesota Twins in which he posted a 1.07 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, while giving up only three earned runs, 14 walks and 35 strikeouts over 25.1 innings pitched.

Wisler had prospered since that breakout season as collectively for the past three seasons, he has compiled strong numbers across the board, including a 2.59 ERA, 155 ERA+, 1.06 WHIP, while giving up 34 earned runs, 39 walks and 132 strikeouts in just 118 innings of work.

Surprisingly, Wisler wasn’t able to secure an MLB contract for 2023 despite those consistent numbers. Unfortunately, he has also struggled pitching in Toledo this year, with a 4.40 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, giving up 23 earned runs, 26 walks and 53 strikeouts in 47 innings of work. Therefore, any chance of him getting a call-up to the majors with Detroit was slim to none.

With the Blue Jays’ bullpen running into some injury woes as of late, it is definitely worth taking a flyer on Wisler and adding him for potential bullpen depth down the stretch, especially if he manages to regain his dominant form shown in the past three seasons. However, with Jordan Romano, Trevor Richards and Chad Green aiming to rejoin the Jays soon, the addition of Wisler will probably be just serving mainly as insurance for the ballclub more than anything.