Why Spencer Arrighetti May Have Fallen Out of the Blue Jays’ Future Plans
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I’ll be absolutely honest: I didn’t remember the exact number of innings right-hander Spencer Arrighetti logged as a starter since joining the Blue Jays at the trade deadline. It’s not that I have to remember it exactly, but I usually do in many cases because I love mastering exact figures as much as possible.
In any case, if you’re a baseball numbers lover, you already know that we have sites like Baseball-Reference, FanGraphs, and Baseball Savant, among others, where we can find an accurate update on whatever we need to know.
So, I admit that I overvalued Arrighetti a little. I knew he had been a disaster when they used him as a starter, but it took me a couple of clicks when I started looking for Jays starters with at least 20 innings.
Arrighetti didn’t show up, so I lowered the threshold to 10, but he still didn’t appear on the list. Wow, did he pitch fewer than 10 innings? That’s right! He logged just 8 ⅔ innings in two starts, so he only appeared when I narrowed the summary to Toronto starters with at least five innings in 2026. Arrighetti ranked 12th out of 13 starters, as CJ Van Eyk pitched just five innings in the only start he made.
Then came all the other data I was looking for, the terrible results Arrighetti posted, with 7.27 K/9, 5.19 BB/9, 3.12 HR/9, and a 9.35 ERA. And yes, it’s a small sample, but in this case, it perfectly defines a season full of inconsistencies that ended in the worst possible way in Toronto.
What Can the Blue Jays Expect From Arrighetti?
If we analyze Arrighetti’s entire season, his injury history, and the struggles he has faced in trying to return to his best level, his future as part of Toronto’s starting rotation is absolutely uncertain.
Arrighetti was never a pitcher with the ability to overpower hitters with his velocity. His breaking pitches, especially the curveball (+1 Run Value) and changeup (+2 Run Value), remain his main weapons, but the rest of his arsenal, made up of five other pitch types, has fallen apart. From the pitcher who ranked in the 79th percentile in K% in 2024, Arrighetti fell to the 42nd percentile in 2026, while in Barrel% he went from the 50th percentile to just the 19th.
His fastball velocity and command issues are two of the deficiencies that have put him in the most difficult situations, to the point of allowing 15 of his 18 home runs on that pitch. That trend had decreased in 2025, after he allowed 17 of his 21 home runs on the fastball in 2024.
When he moved to the bullpen, Arrighetti showed a slight improvement, allowing a .196/.311/.431 batting line against the 62 batters he faced, but that wasn’t the role the Jays had planned for him.
After a first half in which he posted a 4.50 ERA over 82 innings, with a 5.04 FIP, Arrighetti finished the season with a 6.28 ERA, a 6.59 FIP, and a drop in his K-BB% rate from 10.4% to 3.7% after the All-Star break.
If the Jays’ idea was to correct a problem that seemed solvable, the formula didn’t work, at least during the second half. This only creates even more uncertainty heading into 2027.
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Yirsandy is a baseball writer specializing in MLB coverage with experience across multiple teams and storylines. He currently writes for Diamond Centric, where he covers the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, and Kansas City Royals. My work focuses on game coverage, player analysis, and storytelling that connects performance with context. My Substack has also been an important part of my writing development, where I’ve built much of my baseball coverage and storytelling voice over time. I’m passionate about combining reporting, research, and thoughtful analysis to produce engaging baseball content for readers.
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