How Blue Jays can add rotation depth this offseason

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

TORONTO -- Building a deep, strong MLB roster can be an act of pessimism.

While optimism is what we hear publicly, kicking into overdrive in the warm glow of Spring Training, good front offices obsess over what could go wrong and how they can stay one step ahead of that.

“If ____ happens, are we covered?”

Look at the Blue Jays’ bullpen in 2024. When things went wrong, the team wasn’t covered, and it turned into a long, painful season for that group. Adding at least two legitimate relievers is atop the Blue Jays’ list this offseason, but Toronto’s rotation is in the same spot it’s been for a few seasons now.

The starting five look strong, but beyond that, there’s reason to worry … which means there’s reason to act.

Toronto’s veteran rotation -- led by Kevin Gausman, José Berríos and Chris Bassitt -- has been dominant at times. Even when this group isn’t at its best, it is still plenty reliable, an incredible luxury that few other organizations have. Most important of all, this group has been healthy. There’s more than luck involved here, particularly among the three veterans who have made durability an art form, but the Blue Jays are long overdue for a season where they're nine or 10 starters deep.

This is why, even though the rotation doesn’t look like the Blue Jays’ most glaring need, the club has already begun to target that market.

Existing depth: Who's up next?

Jake Bloss is a very important pitcher.

The Bloss acquisition -- in the trade that sent Yusei Kikuchi to Houston -- was all about 2025 and beyond, given the realities of this rotation. The 23-year-old right-hander didn’t exactly light it up after joining the Blue Jays, posting a 6.91 ERA over eight starts with Triple-A Buffalo, but he was pitching extremely well prior to the trade. In a perfect world, the Blue Jays will open the season with Bloss in Triple-A as the “next man up,” something they haven’t had a clear option for in years.

Beyond that, it’s cloudier. This is where former No. 1 prospect Ricky Tiedemann (currently ranked as No. 4) would have been positioned perfectly, but he underwent left elbow surgery in 2024 and will miss at least the first half of '25, if not longer. The same goes for Alek Manoah, who will start his season rehabbing from right elbow surgery at the Blue Jays’ complex in Dunedin, Fla. Luck and timing have not been Toronto’s friends.

Whom will the Blue Jays target?

This is all about how the club views Yariel Rodríguez, its biggest and highest-upside signing from last offseason.

Rodríguez, who will be 28 when next season opens, posted a 4.47 ERA in the big leagues and threw a total of 107 innings in 2024. He’s positioned himself well to push up to the 140-inning range as a starter next year, but the right-hander has the ability to work as a swingman, as he pitched in high-leverage single-inning spots during his time in Japan. Rodríguez can do it all, and even though he wants to be a starter -- very clearly -- he feels like the movable piece, with the Blue Jays hoping to give Bowden Francis a more permanent run as a starter.

General manager Ross Atkins alluded to this at his year-end press conference, and while moving Rodríguez to the bullpen has always been an option, the Blue Jays can’t just do it for the sake of doing it. Rodríguez is talented and he still has potential ahead of him, so if he’s going to be bounced around, it needs to work.

As for the available arms in free agency? The Blue Jays love durability and athleticism. This points to pitchers like old friend Kikuchi or Max Fried (who will likely be a bit pricey). But this market is far more attractive if the Blue Jays open themselves up to some risk and upside with the likes of Shane Bieber.

The most attractive name, though, is Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old Japanese star who is expected to sign with an MLB club for the 2025 season.

Players younger than 25 who have not reached six years of service in a foreign major league are subject to MLB's international amateur signing bonus pool rules, so Sasaki’s contract will look similar to what you see each year for 16-year-olds out of Latin America, not like the 12-year, $325 million deal Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed.

The Dodgers are widely viewed as the favorite here, but the Blue Jays -- like any team with a brain -- will have serious interest and pursue Sasaki.