Blue Jays Bullpen Problems Are Reaching a Breaking Point
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Things don't appear to be getting any easier for an over-taxed Toronto Blue Jays bullpen.
The team announced on Tuesday that veteran left-hander Joe Mantiply was being placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 18, with left knee inflammation. This comes two days after Tommy Nance hit the IL with right forearm discomfort, the same day that Eric Lauer was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
For those keeping track at home, that is three pitchers who have combined for 45 appearances for the Blue Jays so far this season who are not currently available to the team. While Lauer had not been pitching out of the bullpen at the time of his trade, he had been hugely valuable in a hybrid role last season that he appeared poised to return to with the eventual return of injured starters José Berríos, Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber.
More Bad News For An Overworked Group
The injuries to Mantiply and Nance (plus the departure of Lauer) should not represent major blows to Toronto. After all, neither reliever ranks among the club's top high-leverage arms and they were both replaced by viable bullpen options (Chase Lee was called up for Mantiply, while Adam Macko made his big league debut in place of Nance).
In the case of the current Blue Jays' relief corps, however, the injuries represent just another blow to a languishing unit. Toronto's bullpen has thrown the sixth-most innings of any relief unit in the league, struggling to handle the burden created by what is currently a four-man starting rotation.
With the club employing a bullpen day roughly every five games until one of Berríos, Scherzer, or Bieber is ready to return, it means that the likes of Spencer Miles, Mason Fluharty, and Louis Varland will be expected to assume outsized roles regularly.
If the expectation is for key relievers to be heavily used on bullpen days, the hope, then, is that frontline starters like Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease and Trey Yesavage can help take some of the pressure off on non-bullpen days. But while Gausman has done his part, Cease could only manage five innings against the New York Yankees on Tuesday night and Yesavage tossed a season-high six innings on Friday night in Detroit as he ramps back up.
With the Blue Jays approaching the 50-game mark for the 2026 season, the toll that the club's bullpen usage has taken on individual relievers is growing worrisome. Varland, Toronto's most valuable relief arm, has pitched the seventh-most innings in the American League to date, while fellow late-game bullpen arm Braydon Fisher has thrown the fifth-most innings in baseball.
Toronto's bullpen currently resides somewhere in the middle of the pack, with a collective 4.06 ERA that puts them 16th league-wide. But with injuries plaguing some and overworked roles plaguing others, it remains to be seen if the Blue Jays' relief corps is due for a letdown.
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Ben Fisher is a long-time sportswriter and baseball lover, dating back to 2008, when he was a member of the media relations team for the Toronto Blue Jays. He has covered a wide range of sports for a seemingly endless array of publications, including The Canadian Press, Fansided and The Hockey Writers. When he isn't writing about sports, he can be found coaching his equally baseball-obsessed sons' Little League teams.