The Blue Jays Bullpen Has Been a Surprising Strength This Year

Entering Wednesday’s action, the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen ranks 11th in baseball in ERA (3.65) and ninth in FIP (3.62). Neither of those numbers are likely to knock anyone’s socks off, but when you take a look at some of the names that have been logging innings this season, what this bullpen has accomplished has become much more impressive.

Gone are the likes of Jordan Romano, Genesis Cabrera, Zach Pop, Trevor Richards, Nate Pearson, Tim Mayza, Ryan Yarbrough, and now Erik Swanson. These were some of the most reliable and oft-used relievers of the Blue Jays over the past few years, but they’ve all moved on.

Now, Chad Green and old friend Jeff Hoffman are the two “old men” in the ‘pen, with the rest of the ensemble being made up of lottery tickets and rookies who are pitching the first innings of their big league careers. It’s unlikely that any of you had Mason Fluharty, Paxton Schultz, and Braydon Fisher on your preseason radars before the regular season kicked off.

And yet, it’s working. The Blue Jays are not going to pump out this year’s AL Reliever of the Year Award, and they’re not going to finish near the top of the league in overall production from their ‘pen. Even so, this group has scratched and clawed their way up the charts to earn that 11th-place ranking in reliever ERA. It’s not sexy, but it’s admirable what they’re doing.

All stats updated prior to games on Wednesday, June 18

An Outstanding Year-Over-Year Improvement

Last year’s Blue Jays had a bullpen full of recognizable names, yet they completely fell flat. Cabrera, Pop, Green, Richards, Pearson, and Swanson were the club’s most oft-used arms but none of them had an fWAR above 0.0 on the season.

The best arms in that ‘pen were Ryan Burr, Tommy Nance, Yarbrough, and Yimi Garcia. None of them are currently active with the Blue Jays (both Burr and Garcia remain in the organization but they’re both injured).

All told, the 2024 Blue Jays saw their relievers combine to finish 29th in the league in ERA and K/9, and dead last in FIP and HR/9. They were also 22nd in innings pitched, which tells you all you need to know about how bad this group was. The coaching staff took every opportunity they could to lean on their starting pitchers just so they didn’t have to tap into the ‘pen.

Anyone who watched a single Blue Jays game last year can tell you that no lead ever felt fully safe. Even though most of the popular names from years past are gone, it’s a refreshing breath of fresh air for many to not have to hold their breaths every time a starter was lifted.

At this time last year, Blue Jays relievers had a 4.68 ERA and 4.94 FIP to go along with a very not good -1.2 fWAR.

Now, they’ve already been worth 2.0 fWAR, which speaks volumes to just how much of a new-and-improved unit we’re dealing with.

Doing A Lot With A (Brendon) Little

In what was his first full season in the major leagues, Brendon Little made 49 appearances for last year’s Blue Jays. He turned in a 3.74 ERA and 4.90 FIP across 45.2 innings of work, striking out just over seven batters per nine innings and allowing just a hair over eight hits per nine. Not too shabby.

We’re just over halfway through the month of June in 2025, and Little’s already up to 34 appearances. The southpaw has become John Schneider’s favorite option regardless of handedness, and he’s earned that claim.

Through 32.2 innings this season, Little’s punching out over 13 batters per nine innings. It’s true that his walk numbers are elevated, but he’s seen a dramatic spike in strikeouts while also allowing just one home run to start the year. Oh, and his H/9 is also down two full hits.

Little’s allowed four earned runs this month, lifting his season ERA from 1.37 to 2.20, but he is still one of the better left-handed relievers in the league. Entering Wednesday, he’s third in the league amongst fellow lefty relievers in K/9, eighth in groundball percentage, ninth in FIP and fWAR, and 13th in ERA.

Not too shabby for a guy who the Blue Jays initially acquired for cash from the Chicago Cubs.

The Rookies Are Showing Up

It’s not just Little stepping up and proving themselves early on this year. Fluharty and Fisher in particular are off to excellent starts to their own respective big league careers. Before this year, neither of them had thrown a pitch at the game’s highest level.

Fluharty, 23, was a fifth-round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2022 MLB Draft. It’s not every day that you see a player get drafted and develop strictly as a reliever, but Fluharty has done exactly that. He hasn’t made a single start since he started his collegiate career back in 2018.

Coming up through the Blue Jays’ system, Fluharty was a strikeout machine, striking out no less than 10.2 batters per nine innings in any of his pro seasons prior to this year. In the majors, he’s sitting at 9.4, but his ERA remains at 3.82 and his FIP is even more impressive at 2.48.

Fluharty has been money to kick off his career. Right-handed batters are hitting just .179 with a .478 OPS and left-handers are at .189 with a .531 OPS. That doesn’t exactly scream “high-3.00s ERA”, but a few walks and a two- or three-run home run can inflate an ERA without a bunch of base hits being recorded.

Then there’s Fisher, who’s still working on accumulating enough innings to make it as a “qualified reliever” on leaderboards. The right-hander came to the Blue Jays in a minor trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers last year that sent Cavan Biggio to the NL West.

Now, he’s kicking ass and taking names against some of the game’s best hitters.

To date, Fisher has 15 appearances (16.2 innings) with the big-league club, posting a 2.70 ERA, 2.53 FIP and 156 ERA+ along the way. He’s struck out 22 batters and walked only three. What makes his season most interesting is that all of his earned runs came in a single outing against the Athletics.

Every single one of his other 14 outings, he’s been unscored upon. That’ll play just fine.

Don’t forget about Schultz either, who’s filled opener and long-relief roles admirably for the Blue Jays. The right-hander tied the MLB record for most strikeouts in a debut by a relief pitcher when he went 4.1 innings and punched out eight Seattle Mariners. Since then, he’s earned seven more looks on a big league mound and has allowed earned runs in just one (three ER against the Minnesota Twins on June 6).

Walking A Fine Line

The likes of Fluharty, Fisher, Little, and Yariel Rodriguez have helped the Blue Jays narrowly avoid some significant depth issues this season. It’s no secret that this club has fought through a ton of injuries and underperformance.

Some of this underperformance falls on Hoffman, who the Blue Jays have on-hand as their primary closer. The right-hander sports a 5.52 ERA through 32 appearances this season but leads the majors with 28 games finished and is still a strikeout machine. Overall, he’s done a great job in his first go-round as a full-time closer, but he’s been prone to blow-up outings, which have bogged down his full-season numbers.

Having a group of pitchers – even if they’re lesser known ones – be able to fill in on days that Hoffman doesn’t have his top stuff is crucial, and it’s been working out in the Blue Jays’ favor this year.

On the injury front, three relievers are on the injured list and each of them is supposed to be a top contributor to this year’s relief corps.

Garcia and Nick Sandlin are both on the 15-day IL, while Burr is on the 60-day. There’s very little in the way of depth on the club’s 40-man roster, but Easton Lucas is available to fill multiple roles on a pitching staff, Adam Macko is nearing his big league debut, and there are some intriguing hurlers down on the farm that could be positive contributors at some point this year, too.

At one point, Fisher and Fluharty would’ve fallen under the latter category of “lesser known arms that could make a difference”. Now, they’re pitching at the game’s highest level in high-leverage situations and finding ways to excel. They’ve taken a lot on their shoulders and helped the Blue Jays stay in the hunt in countless games this year.