Tim Mayza is laughably underrated, Blue Jays teammates rally to change that

It has been a long time coming for Toronto Blue Jays reliever Tim Mayza. Currently the longest-tenured player on the team, he has yet to earn the respect for being one of the top lefty bullpen arms in all of baseball.

With a lifetime winning percentage of .741 and a 3.47 ERA, Mayza had been the Jays’ lefty specialist out of the bullpen for many years. Just last season, he put together the best performance of his career when he posted a 3-1 record with a sparkling 1.52 ERA, 281 ERA+, 1.22 WHIP, along with 53 strikeouts in as many innings across 69 appearances. However, apparently MLB The Show just gave him a rating of 69 for 2023 and just a couple ticks higher with 71 for 2024. Just for comparison, the top 100 MLB pitchers are all at 79 and above.

As a result, according to MLB.com, multiple Jays players decided to rally around him to make sure that the league, the game and everyone else will start taking notice of the highly underrated relief arm in more ways than one. Led by Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson, the core expressed various methods to rebrand Mayza in a way so that he would become a recognizable face going forward and most importantly, get his MLB The Show rating into at least in the high 70s.

As the bullpen leader, Romano believes Mayza needed a complete makeover, ranging from his attitude to his physical appearance.

“[Mayza] just needs to be a bit more edgy … He’s a little generic right now … He’s extremely good at what he does, but we need a little bit more flair. My first thought would be some tattoos, maybe? Maybe something with a beard. He has goatee potential. He needs something there. The clean-cut, little short beard looks good, but it’s just not edgy enough,” Romano said.

“Another thing … he drives … a Kia Telluride. We need him in a Trans Am, an old-school muscle car. We can’t have him driving around in a Kia Telluride … (So) A Trans Am with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth pulling up to the field with a neck tat,” Romano described.

Swanson suggested that Mayza should change his boring daily attire when coming to the ballpark to some form of wackiness to make him stand out.

“He (Mayza) needs to show up without a collared shirt on every day … It’s respectful. But maybe a tank top with some shorts? Some swimming trunks, maybe? Some flip flops? He’s got to do something crazy,”exclaimed Swanson.

Bowden Francis also agreed that a tattoo on Mayza’s face was the way to go, along with using Biggie Smalls instead of his classic rock as his entrance music for good measure.

Hopefully, with the helpful suggestions of his trusted teammates, 2024 will finally be the year that puts Mayza on the baseball map, as he aims to lead the Jays to success.