Grading the Blue Jays’ last offseason through the first half of the 2023 season

3. Notable players non-tendered

Outfield trio: Raimel Tapia, Bradley Zimmer, Jackie Bradley Jr.

The main strength that Raimel Tapia brought to the Jays during his tenure with the team was his speed and hitting for average. For 2023, that has been mostly taken care of by Whit Merrifield. For both Bradley Zimmer and Jackie Bradley Jr., defence was their calling card, but that has been covered by Varsho and Kiermaier this year as well. As a result, their redundancy wasn’t really needed.

For the 2023 season, Tapia had struggled with both his production numbers and finding playing time with the Boston Red Sox, and was eventually released. Now with the Brewers, his miserable season has continued, with a cumulative total of a .238 average, with only three home runs and 13 RBI in 55 games. For Bradley, things were even worse as he struggled with part-time duties with the Kansas City Royals, posting a .133 average,  with only one home run and six RBI in 43 games played, and was later cut by the team in mid-June. Zimmer was signed to a minor league contract during the offseason, then released by the team in May, then later signed by the Red Sox also to a minor league contract, and has yet to play a game in the majors this year.

Grade: A+ - Seeing their struggles to remain in the big leagues this year, the Jays definitely made the right call in non-tendering these three players, along with finding more than adequate replacements for what they brought to the team.