{"id":341872,"date":"2025-12-13T04:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T04:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/341872\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T04:15:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T04:15:06","slug":"blue-jays-poised-to-give-bullpen-new-look-with-deal-for-tyler-rogers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/341872\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays poised to give bullpen new look with deal for Tyler Rogers \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Already featuring a pitcher tied for the highest release point in Trey Yesavage, the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> are poised to make an addition at the very opposite end of the spectrum, reaching agreement on a $37-million, three-year deal with reliever Tyler Rogers<\/a>, according to an industry source.<\/p>\n

The deal, which is pending a physical, includes a vesting option that could take the total value up to $48 million, and comes hours after the acquisition of sidearm righty Chase Lee from the Detroit Tigers, with minor-league lefty Johan Simon going the other way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Lee is a depth move, Rogers gives the Blue Jays one of the game\u2019s most unique, consistent and durable relief arms, one who gets outs with an unorthodox submarine delivery that releases the ball at 1.3 feet off the ground.<\/p>\n

For context, Lee\u2019s release point of 3.75 feet is the fourth lowest in the majors, both in sharp contrast to Yesavage, who releases the ball from 7.09 feet, essentially tied with Justin Verlander\u2019s 7.1. Rogers\u2019 release counterbalances a first-percentile fastball velo of 83.5 m.p.h., combining that with a slider to give hitters fits since his debut in 2019.<\/p>\n

In each of the past five seasons, Rogers has logged at least 70.1 innings and posted ERAs from 1.98 to 3.57. Last year, split between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets, he was in the 100th\u00a0percentile in both barrel (2.1 per cent) and walk (2.3 per cent) rates, 99th\u00a0percentile in average exit velocity (85.8 m.p.h.) and 98th percentile in groundball rate (61.6 per cent).<\/p>\n

He’ll give manager John Schneider an option to both neutralize rallies at key points or help lock down a game in late leverage.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays\u2019 interest in pitchers with varied release points isn\u2019t new, dating back to\u00a0Adam Cimber\u2019s acquisition in 2021 and including Nick Sandlin\u2019s pickup last winter. Mason Fluharty\u2019s emergence this season also fits the bill, while their system includes fellow lefty Kai Peterson, who modelled his game around Josh Hader<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eric Yardley, the Blue Jays\u2019 pitching coach at high-A Vancouver, a sidearmer himself, recalled during a recent interview how the\u00a0Milwaukee Brewers bullpen he was a part of in 2020 and \u201921 was like \u201cworking your way around the clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yardley threw \u201cfrom a right-handed release slot of about 2.5 feet, Alex Claudio was throwing from a left-handed release point of about four feet, Hader was in there, throwing about shoulder height with unique ride, carry and arsenal. Then you’ve got Brent Suter \u2026 at one point, we had David Phelps, you keep going, and you get Devon Williams \u2026 so that when you want to have a specific form of success, you know you can bring in the groundball pitcher, or the strikeout pitcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement with Rogers comes the day after Robert Suarez, believed by agents engaged with the Blue Jays to have been their focus, signed a $45-million, three-year deal with Atlanta. One agent believed Rogers was Toronto’s fallback option and proved to be correct.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rogers joins a bullpen mix that includes closer Jeff Hoffman, set-up man Yimi Garcia, who is returning from elbow surgery, righties Louis Varland, Braydon Fisher and Tommy Nance, lefties Brendon Little and Mason Fluharty and swingman Eric Lauer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having already added starters Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce as free agents and Shane Bieber when he exercised his player option, plus taking righty Spencer Miles in the Rule 5 draft, the Blue Jays now appear poised to focus more on the position-player market.<\/p>\n

They remain engaged on Bo Bichette and Kyle Tucker, and influential agent Scott Boras hinted during the winter meetings that the Blue Jays were monitoring Cody Bellinger\u2019s market as well. The Blue Jays feel their position-player group is strong enough with sufficient depth that they don\u2019t need to add for the sake of adding.<\/p>\n

Pitching, on the other hand, can go fast, which is why it\u2019s been such a focus and as\u00a0a reliever with two options remaining, Lee helps build out that depth layer.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old debuted in the majors in 2025, striking out 36 batters in 37.1 innings with a 4.10 earned-run average. His fastball sits at 89 m.p.h., but he throws sidearm from a minus-4-degree arm angle, allowing his sinker\/four-seam\/sweeper mix to play up.<\/p>\n

Simon is a 23-year-old lefty who posted a 3.42 ERA over 71 innings in 31 games for low-A Dunedin, high-A Vancouver and double-A New Hampshire. He struck out 79 and walked 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 Already featuring a pitcher tied for the highest release point in Trey Yesavage, the Toronto Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-341872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}