TORONTO — Amid the dozens of packing boxes scattered all around the Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse, some marked for donation, others bound for a specific destination, one sat in the centre of the room with a unique inscription. It read: “57 … Leave here for good luck.”
No. 57, of course, belongs to Shane Bieber, who finished the season on the injured list with a teres major strain but was working toward a return for a potential playoff run. The Blue Jays, of course, did not qualify and now free agency, under the shadow of a coming lockout, looms for the 31-year-old, who is hoping that his seven-shutout innings in a 5-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 20 wasn’t his final outing for the club.
“It's hard every time you think about it,” he said. “I mean, this off-season is just going to be an interesting one in and of itself, right, so I don't know what it's going to hold. I don't know if teams are going to want to get things done early, or if they're going to wait and see, or if it's going to be 50-50 and some teams want to be aggressive and some teams want to wait. I have no idea. I just know that I have a lot of good left in front of me. And I hope it’s here.”
While Sunday’s season finale rightly focused on celebrating the expected departures of George Springer and Max Scherzer, the pending free-agent list for the Blue Jays also includes Bieber, Paul Sewald, a veteran reliever who wants to keep pitching; Jameson Taillon, a veteran starter determined to recover from an elbow injury and return to the mound; Yimi Garcia, who is recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery; and Patrick Corbin and Luis Urias, who both finished the season on the injured list, too.
Myles Straw may join them on the open market, as well, as the Blue Jays hold an $8 million option on him for 2027 that can be bought out for $1.75 million. As part of the deal that brought him north, the Cleveland Guardians will send over the buyout amount whether the option is exercised or not, so it’s a $6.25-million call, one the outfielder hopes keeps him in Toronto.
“I’m hearing nothing,” Straw said when asked if he’s had any indication of what might happen. “It'll all work out how it's supposed to. I try not to think about it too much right now. I'm sure I will here in a little bit. Whatever the team decides to do, I love it here and I hope I'm back. I’d love to be back. All of us that are going to be leaving feel the same way. But I get it, it's a business, I've been through a lot in this game. They're going to do whatever they’ve got to do, which I understand. We’ll see.”
Bieber and Straw are the likeliest candidates to return, although that will depend on how the Blue Jays map out their off-season opportunities in the weeks ahead.
The trade-deadline acquisition of Jose Soriano jump-started their winter by strengthening the rotation base, and given that he’s headed to arbitration platforming off a $2.9 million salary, the efficiency there creates more flexibility for other areas of the roster.
With Soriano, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage and Cody Ponce as a starting point, Bowden Francis, Jake Bloss and Jose Berrios, middle to end of the season, returning from surgery and legitimate upper-level starting prospects in Nolan Perry and Johnny King trending upwards, the Blue Jays don’t face the same acute bind for starters like they did the past few winters.
Still, since they always big-game hunt, they’re sure to at least check in with Tarik Skubal but they’ve also done lots of work on this year’s Japanese class, including starters Kaima Taira and Hiromi Itoh, and third baseman/outfielder Teruaki Sato. Last year, they signed Kazuma Okamoto and Ponce out of Asia and engaged with Foster Griffin up until Ponce signed as well, seeing their Pacific Rim efforts start to bear fruit.
Domestically, the Chicago Cubs outfield duo of Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ are of interest and the Blue Jays must sort through their internal glut to determine how much to add. Addison Barger and Anthony Santander, both returning from major surgeries, bring power potential along with a measure of unknown, while Brett Bateman impressed enough during his two-month stint as the centre-fielder that manager John Schneider said “he's definitely part of the puzzle” next year, but “there's a handful of guys you just pencil in, slam dunk — I don't want to put him in that category just yet.”
All of which opens doors for Bieber and Straw.
Bieber was acquired at the deadline last summer while he was still recovering from reconstructive elbow surgery and posted a 3.57 ERA in seven starts during the regular season before five mixed-bag appearances during the post-season, highlighted by a World Series Game 4 gem at Dodgers Stadium, the day after an 18-inning, walk-off loss. He also returned on short rest in Game 7, when he allowed Will Smith’s decisive homer in the 11th.
Afterwards he exercised a $16 million player option for 2026 rather than taking a $4 million buyout and the penalty for his post-season push led to elbow inflammation that kept him sidelined until late June. He’d posted back-to-back gems against the Yankees and Rays in late August when the teres major injury happened, ending a trying season.
“Oh, man. Ebbs and flows. Ups and downs. Kind of tumultuous, right?” he said of his year. “I’m grateful for every time I got to pitch for these guys and for the organization. I wish I would have been able to do it more. That's definitely something I'm going to carry with me for a while. We'll see what happens in the future. Would love to be back. It was challenging physically and mentally, but every season that you're able to play the big-leagues and with a group like this is a blessing. I always try to keep that perspective.”
Straw, meanwhile, was acquired in a Jan. 17, 2025 trade in which taking on his salary was the cost for the Blue Jays to add international-bonus-pool room from Cleveland, used in the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to sign Roki Sasaki. But the 31-year-old revived his career after being outrighted off the Guardians 40-man roster in 2024, delivering stellar defence and timely hitting in a nearly two-win season, as calculated by Fangraphs in 2025, though he dipped just under a win this year.
“Since the day I got here, everyone made it super easy to come to work every day and to enjoy every single day,” he said. “That always hasn't been the case for me. I've been in some tough places, which is OK, it's part of it. I've enjoyed every single day here. I believe I went to the right team. And I hope I'm back, whatever happens. I'm going to shoot for it.”
With both players, finding the right contract structure will be the challenge.
Bieber is sure to want an opportunity to rebuild his value and show that his elbow issues are behind him, without surrendering the opportunity to secure a longer deal should he accomplish that, making an incentive-laden pillow deal one way to share risk. In a thin centre field market, whether $6.25 million for Straw is the right value is to be decided and the Blue Jays could always decline the option and let the market dictate his price before bringing him back.
That’s the business side to come, after both lived the personal side the past two seasons.
“I love the people, the entire organization,” said Bieber. “They've taken really good care of not just me, but everybody here and our families. You hear guys beat that drum quite a bit and it makes a world of difference. I respect the way that everybody goes about things here. I just think that they do things right.”
Added Straw: “Last year was the coolest season I've had in professional baseball. And even this year, I mean, we fought 'til the end. It was a fun ride. I loved every single person in this building. It makes it really enjoyable to compete when you truly enjoy everybody, the coaches, the chefs, the staff, teammates. It gives you something to fight for. … I'm a big Blue Jays fan, always will be and will always have great things to say about this place, whether I'm here next year or not.”
