{"id":334772,"date":"2025-12-07T09:22:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/334772\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T09:22:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T09:22:14","slug":"blue-jays-announce-surprising-roster-decision-on-32-million-pitcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/334772\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Announce Surprising Roster Decision On $32 Million Pitcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Atlanta<\/p>\n

TORONTO, ON – APRIL 14: Ross Atkins, general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, speaks during a press conference before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signs a 14-year contract extension at Rogers Centre on April 14, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Toronto Blue Jays are hoping to follow up their trip all the way to Game 7 of the latest World Series with another deep run next season.<\/p>\n

After locking in their franchise slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with a monumental extension and receiving news that former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber would opt back into his own deal, the Blue Jays surprised much of the baseball world by signing Dylan Cease to a $210 million contract<\/a>. That was a clear sign that the team would be a threat to land any number of other high-priced additions this winter, but its most recent move was a surprising bit of subtraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cRHP Yariel Rodriguez has cleared outright assignment waivers and has been outrighted off the 40-man roster,\u201d the team announced on X<\/a>, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n

Evidently, no other team claimed Rodriguez when he was placed on waivers and the team has removed him from its big-league roster even though there was no corresponding replacement announced. The decision to effectively move on from Rodriguez, at least for now, was a surprise given that he is going into his third year of the five-year, $32 million contract<\/a> he signed with the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t as if Rodriguez had taken a significant step back in the second year of that deal. He posted a 3.08 ERA with 17 games finished in this past campaign, compared to a 4.47 ERA with no closing opportunities in his rookie season the year before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was also included on the Blue Jays\u2019 rosters for both the ALDS and ALCS,\u201d Mark Polishuk wrote for MLB Trade Rumors<\/a>. \u201cHowever, the outright clearly puts Rodriguez in line as something of a secondary option within Toronto\u2019s bullpen plans, and likely makes him a trade candidate for the remainder of the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays\u2019 decision on Rodriguez might have been driven by some confidence about an impending bullpen addition. And, given the team\u2019s aggressive stance so far this winter, fans can hope that might include a new high-leverage reliever like Edwin Diaz or Robert Suarez. <\/p>\n

But Rodriguez\u2019s replacement might already be on the Blue Jays\u2019 roster. After the team confirmed Bieber\u2019s return and signed Cease, it also added Cody Ponce and now could have a six-man rotation. <\/p>\n

Re-assigning a player like Jose Berrios or Eric Lauer to replace Rodriguez could be under consideration next. Meanwhile, it seems unlikely that the Blue Jays will get much trade interest on Rodriguez, given that no other club was willing to pick up the remainder of his contract after he was placed on waivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO, ON – APRIL 14: Ross Atkins, general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, speaks during a press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99,12378,364],"class_list":{"0":"post-334772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-toronto","11":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}