Six non-tendered players who could fit the Blue Jays

On Friday, 31 MLB players were non-tendered by their clubs and hit the open market. And while these aren’t name-brand free agents that will power the rumour mill over the coming weeks, there is typically value to be found among each year’s non-tender class.

It isn’t hard to find examples of players who were non-tendered in recent years and went on to be significant contributors with their new clubs — Kevin Gausman, Carlos Rodon, Kyle Schwarber, Cody Bellinger, Blake Treinen, Jeff Hoffman, Jason Adam, Luke Weaver.

There are plenty of smaller scale success stories, as well. After he was non-tendered by the Miami Marlins, last off-season, Jacob Stallings signed with the Colorado Rockies for $1.5 million and proceeded to give them 1.7 bWAR in return. Meanwhile, Spencer Turnbull — non-tendered by the Detroit Tigers — signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for $2 million and pitched to a 2.65 ERA over his first 54.1 innings before a lat injury ended his season in late June.

Of course, players are non-tendered for a reason. They’re often coming off campaigns marred by unproductivity, injury, or both. They typically don’t project to produce enough value in the upcoming season to justify the salary they’ll command through arbitration. If everything was going great, they wouldn’t have been non-tendered.

But many present intriguing buy-low opportunities in anticipation of a bounce back and can be finishing touches around the margins as teams wrap up winter shopping. And while the Toronto Blue Jays intend to compete at the top end of this year’s free agent market, they’ll need to consider some of these more affordable options, too, as they build out roster depth.

Toronto’s most glaring need on the pitching side is in the bullpen. And the cleanest way to add position players to the Blue Jays roster is in left field or at third base. With that in mind, here are six players — three relievers and three position players — non-tendered last week that could fit the Blue Jays.

LHP Hoby Milner

Fortune was not on Milner’s side last season, as he pitched to a 4.73 ERA that belied his 3.15 xERA and 3.14 FIP. While his 2024 strikeout, walk, and groundball rates remained stable with the ones he posted over the two years prior when he worked to a 2.79 ERA, Milner’s BABIP and HR/FB rate increased substantially and his LOB% plummeted, all indicators that the 33-year-old stands to regress to career norms in 2025.

And he hasn’t lost anything off his stuff, not that there was much to lose. Milner works with a relatively even split of high-70s sliders and high-80s sinkers — plus a high-80s four-seamer and low-80s changeup for righties — to induce gobs of weak contact on the ground. When hitters put his sinker in play last season, it was a groundball 60.5 per cent of the time.

Even amidst his rough 2024 results, Milner ran a 99th percentile barrel rate, 92nd percentile walk rate, and 91st percentile groundball rate. His pitches aren’t overpowering anyone, but he locates them precisely and they’re incredibly difficult to square up.

With the ability to pitch multiple innings, Milner could help the Blue Jays bullpen in a few ways. It’s the Tim Mayza role — sometimes targeting tough lefties late in tight games, sometimes cleaning up a starter’s mess in the fifth or sixth before coming back out for another inning. On a one-year, $1.5 million deal, it wouldn’t take much for Milner to return value.

RHP Kyle Finnegan

It’s not every day a closer coming off a 38-save, All-Star season gets non-tendered, but that’s the case for Finnegan, who was let go by the Washington Nationals last week.

The right-hander certainly has late-game stuff with a 97 m.p.h. fastball that regularly touches 99, a diving splitter, and a slider he throws to righties. But for one reason or another hitters tend to see his stuff well, which is why Finnegan only had a 22 per cent strikeout rate over the last two seasons while allowing the second-highest hard-hit rate of any qualified reliever. Likely why the Nationals passed on the $8.6 million he was projected to earn via arbitration thanks to accumulating all those saves.

Still, Finnegan has more closing experience than any pitcher on the Blue Jays roster and would immediately step into a late-game leverage role if the club signed him. The Blue Jays like pitchers with above-average extension who throw splitters and generate lots of groundballs. Maybe they see an adjustment or two the 33-year-old could make to better execute his fastball and miss more bats.

RHP Jacob Webb

Webb’s been a perfectly serviceable reliever over the last two seasons, pitching to a 3.34 ERA with 115 strikeouts over 110.1 innings. But there are a couple of red flags behind his results. His 12.2 per cent walk rate over that span is well above league average and he missed six weeks this summer with right elbow inflammation. Steamer projects him to regress rather dramatically in 2025 to a 4.29 ERA.

Still, the Blue Jays have a suite of approaches they utilize to help pitchers hit the zone more consistently. And if Pete Walker and co. can help Webb cut down his walks, they could come away with a medium-leverage reliever at an extremely low cost.

And Webb has some interesting tools to work with. His best pitch in 2024 was an 84-mph changeup, which got nearly 18 inches of arm-side tail. Batters hit just .125 and slugged .219 against it last season, whiffing over a third of the time they swung. It’s a pitch he probably ought to be throwing more often than only a quarter of the time.

It helps his 93.5 m.p.h. fastball play up, too, which is why Webb has been able to use his heater to finish more than half his strikeouts over the last two seasons. The changeup also helps level out his platoon splits, making him deployable in a variety of situations. If his arm’s healthy, Webb could absorb some of the unglamorous work fellow changeup artist Trevor Richards contributed over the last three seasons. And the Blue Jays would likely only need to pay him around $1 million to do it.

OF Austin Hays

Hays suffered through a miserable 2024, hitting the IL with a calf issue early in the season, a hamstring strain after he was traded from the Baltimore Orioles to the Phillies at the deadline, and a gnarly kidney infection that held him out for most of September. His numbers reflected it as Hays hit .255/.303/.396 with a 98 wRC+, his worst results since his first full season in 2021.

But when Hays was healthy the three years prior, he hit .261/.313/.439 with a 108 wRC+ while making up for his ordinary outfield range with a plus arm in left field. Still, on the right side of his 30th birthday, there’s reason to believe a healthy Hays could bounce back to at least an above-league-average hitter with upside.

With the Blue Jays, Hays could be a regular against left-handed pitching and a pinch-hit option off the bench when the opposition gains platoon advantage on someone like Daulton Varsho, Spencer Horwitz, or Will Wagner. The 29-year-old's career 99 wRC+ against right-handed pitching certainly isn’t unplayable. But it stands in stark contrast to his 120 wRC+ against lefties.

OF Mike Tauchman

The well-traveled Tauchman has already enjoyed a pair of unexpected MLB breakouts, first with the Yankees in 2019 when he OPS’ed .865, then with the Cubs over the last two seasons when he posted 2.8 fWAR after returning from a brief stint in Korea.

Entering his age-34 season, it may be asking a bit much for Tauchman to tap back into the power that produced a .227 ISO with the Yankees in ’19. Still, he ought to be able to carry forward the elite discipline he demonstrated over the last two seasons, walking in 13.7 per cent of his plate appearances and running a 92nd percentile chase rate while posting a .360 OBP. He only hit seven homers in 2024 yet still produced a 111 wRC+. Steamer projects Tauchman for a 106 wRC+ in 2025 with 0.8 fWAR across only 65 games.

The eight-year veteran declined defensively over the years and fits best in an outfield corner but the Cubs were still confident enough in his range to start him a half-dozen times in centre last season. With Daulton Varsho likely beginning the year on the IL, the Blue Jays could have roster room for a left-handed hitting outfielder who can cover centre in a pinch and reach base 36 per cent of the time from the bottom half of the lineup.

IF Josh Rojas

The Blue Jays value versatility and Rojas fits the bill having started at least 30 games at second base, shortstop, third base, and both outfield corners throughout his six-year career. His shortstop days are likely behind him, but Rojas posted six OAA at third base last season and six at second base in 2023, which will play.

Whether the bat will is another question. Rojas put up serviceable numbers over his first two full MLB seasons, hitting .266/.345/.401 with a 106 wRC+ between 2021 and 2022. But his next two seasons were a different story, as Rojas split .234/.304/.337 with an 85 wRC+.

His results over those two most recent seasons are most important to consider, of course. But there’s at least a track record of productivity here and Steamer projects Rojas to regress to a 91 wRC+ next season while contributing 1.9 fWAR thanks on defence.

The 30-year-old has posted low chase rates throughout — 89th percentile in 2024 — while going 45-for-52 on stolen base attempts since 2022. Strong defence, base-stealing ability, and a pesky plate approach are good traits to have in a utility bench player. Seattle was using Rojas in a platoon last season and the left-handed hitter could play a similar role with the Blue Jays opposite Davis Schneider while hopping from position to position defensively.