Phelps adds familiar face to bullpen
Right-handed reliever signs a one-year deal worth $1.75 million
The Blue Jays’ bullpen was never going to be the part of the team that commanded the bulk of the interest this off-season. Not when the organization was consistently linked with just about every big-name free agent or trade opportunity on the hot stove.
Even the $5.5 million (U.S.) acquisition of Kirby Yates in January, a significant investment in relief by Toronto’s standards that was touted across baseball as a shrewd deal for an elite high-leverage arm, was overshadowed by the rampant churning of the George Springer rumour mill.
The bullpen remained somewhat on the back burner when it came to the headlines. But, quietly, Jays general manager Ross Atkins has solidified his relief pitching, giving Toronto a shot at some predictability in a volatile area of the roster, all while largely staying below the $2 million to $3 million a year threshold Atkins had said the Jays would be willing to go above if it meant bringing in a successful, available reliever.
Take David Phelps. Toronto added some familiarity to its bullpen Wednesday by signing the right-handed reliever to a one-year deal worth $1.75 million, plus performance bonuses, per a source — a signing which will not be announced until the Jays clear a spot on their 40-man roster.
Phelps, 34, spent the first half of 2019 with Toronto before he was traded to the Chicago Cubs. At the time, he was a reclamation project, on his way back from Tommy John surgery, who posted a 3.63 ERA in 17 innings for the Jays. Phelps has since put up a 5.01 ERA in 37 2⁄3 innings between three clubs, including a 12.91 ERA in 7 2⁄3 inning with Philadelphia after the trade deadline last year.
In Phelps, like with A.J. Cole’s minor-league deal before him, the Jays know what they’re getting and can count on it, as much as that’s possible with veteran relievers.
But Atkins has also shown a willingness to go a little bolder when structuring his bullpen this off-season, a sign of where this team is at in its championship hunt.
The Jays announced Wednesday that reliever Shum Yamaguchi was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for right-handed reliever Joel Payamps, who they claimed off waivers from Boston. Payamps is a two-pitch reliever with little major-league experience.
It was in saying goodbye to Yamaguchi that the Jays showed more ruthlessness, a needed approach to continue climbing the standings.
Yamaguchi, a veteran of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, arrived in Toronto fighting for a role in the Jays rotation and never found his groove. He posted an 8.06 ERA in 25 2⁄3 innings out of the bullpen last year. His is an arm the Jays would have put up with even three years ago, in part because of the $3.175 million the 33year-old is still owed on the two-year deal he signed last offseason. But it is harder to justify sticking with Yamaguchi as they push for a repeat of their playoff appearance in 2020, so the Jays will spend more to part ways with him than they did on bringing in Phelps, Cole, Tyler Chatwood and more.
That’s the cost of doing business when you’re looking to improve. The addition of Phelps and the subtraction of Yamaguchi leaves Toronto’s bullpen in a better place to end Wednesday than when the day began, just like the addition of Phelps, Yates and Tyler Chatwood to compliment existing bullpen arms Ryan Borucki, Rafael Dolis and Jordan Romano has the Jays in a better place now than at the beginning of the off-season.