Despite their 74-88 record, there were some positives to glean from the Toronto Blue Jays&#8217; 2024 campaign. Vladimir Guerero Jr. re-asserting himself as one of the premiere hitters in the league, the breakout of Bowden Francis, and second-half bounce backs by Kevin Gausman and Alejandro Kirk.

However, look over at the bullpen, and there aren&#8217;t many success stories. As a whole, they were an abject failure and the weakest part of the club this season. Many would say the lack of offence cost them in the first half, but I&#8217;d lay the blame at the feet of the bullpen.
There was one encouraging takeaway from the Blue Jays&#8217; bullpen this season, and that was the emergence of Brendon Little. Drafted by the Giants in 2015, then by the Cubs again in 2017, his path to the big leagues has been a long time coming.
Little spent seven seasons in the Cubs&#8217; minor league system before breaking through to the big leagues in 2022. On August 30, 2022, he made one appearance, gave up three earned runs, and was sent back down to Triple-A three days later.
Most people didn&#8217;t even realize the Blue Jays acquired Little from the Cubs last offseason, a trade that flew under everybody&#8217;s radar. At the time, it was a move for some minor league bullpen depth, but Little turned out to be one of the best relievers for the Blue Jays in 2024.
At the end of April, the Blue Jays figured: &#8220;What the hell?&#8221; and gave Little a shot, and he fared similarly to his debut outing with his Cubs: three earned runs surrendered, and it looked like his time with the Blue Jays would be short-lived.
But on June 1st, the Blue Jays gave the lefty another shot, and he stayed with the big club the rest of the season, making 46 appearances from June 1 onward and carving out a 3.19 ERA with 32 strikeouts along the way.
As a reliever, he has a bit of a strange repertoire, using a sinker, knuckle curve and a cutter as his primary pitches. Statistically, the sinker isn&#8217;t even his best pitch, but he puts 7.7 inches of movement on that pitch, which is the second-most in the big leagues behind Yennier Cano&#8217;s 8.5 inches of vertical drop.
By the way, Paul Skenes has 7.1 inches of vertical drop on his sinker, so that must mean Little is doing something right. The odd thing is Little only struck out 5.6% of batters on his sinker, while his curveball, striking out 46.7% of batters, does the heavy lifting in the strikeout department.
And while he didn&#8217;t start out the season pitching in high-leverage situations, Little worked his way into John Schneider&#8217;s circle of trust, becoming the third-best reliever on the Blue Jays this year after Chad Green and Genesis Cabrera. I&#8217;m not sure if that says more about the quality of Blue Jays relief pitchers, but either way, Little earned his keep and has a decent shot at making the team next year.
When constructing a bullpen, it always helps to have reliable left-handers to choose from, and at the end of the season, the Blue Jays had two of them in Little and Cabrera.
With a strikeout rate of only 18.7%, Little isn&#8217;t the guy you&#8217;d turn to when you need swing-and-miss stuff to strand baserunners in a high leverage situation, but he doesn&#8217;t walk very many batters with a 9.8% walk rate.
Let&#8217;s also talk about Little&#8217;s ability to put the ball on the ground at 70.9%. That makes him a left-handed version of Adam Cimber circa 2021, but turned up to 11. That led all MLB relievers in 2024 with a minimum of 40 innings pitched, Little was a ground ball machine.
And while it wasn&#8217;t that costly for him in 2024, there&#8217;s always the fear that the league will make an adjustment and start lifting those balls for doubles and home runs. But because he gets so much drop on that sinker, it&#8217;s put into play as a ground ball 76.4% of the time.
Again, it may not be the sexiest way to record outs, but from a core of relievers that struggled to mitigate disaster in 2024, Little was one of the few pitchers who knew how to keep damage to a minimum. And with that pitch mix and a half-decent defence behind him, those numbers shouldn&#8217;t waver.
There is going to be a lot of turnover in the Blue Jays bullpen this winter, but one player who I expect to be back for 2025 is Little. He may not become the de facto seventh-inning guy like he did at the end of last season, but most teams would gladly a sub-4 ERA from a middle reliever.
Just by the nature of signing or trading for higher-quality arms, Little will move down the bullpen depth chart a few rungs, but he was an unsung hero of the 2024 roster and could play a similar role next season as well.

Despite their 74-88 record, there were some positives to glean from the Toronto Blue Jays' 2024 campaign. Vladimir Guerero Jr. re-asserting himself as one of the premiere hitters in the league, the breakout of Bowden Francis, and second-half bounce backs by Kevin Gausman and Alejandro Kirk.



However, look over at the bullpen, and there aren't many success stories. As a whole, they were an abject failure and the weakest part of the club this season. Many would say the lack of offence cost them in the first half, but I'd lay the blame at the feet of the bullpen.

There was one encouraging takeaway from the Blue Jays' bullpen this season, and that was the emergence of Brendon Little. Drafted by the Giants in 2015, then by the Cubs again in 2017, his path to the big leagues has been a long time coming.

Little spent seven seasons in the Cubs' minor league system before breaking through to the big leagues in 2022. On August 30, 2022, he made one appearance, gave up three earned runs, and was sent back down to Triple-A three days later.

Most people didn't even realize the Blue Jays acquired Little from the Cubs last offseason, a trade that flew under everybody's radar. At the time, it was a move for some minor league bullpen depth, but Little turned out to be one of the best relievers for the Blue Jays in 2024.

At the end of April, the Blue Jays figured: "What the hell?" and gave Little a shot, and he fared similarly to his debut outing with his Cubs: three earned runs surrendered, and it looked like his time with the Blue Jays would be short-lived.

But on June 1st, the Blue Jays gave the lefty another shot, and he stayed with the big club the rest of the season, making 46 appearances from June 1 onward and carving out a 3.19 ERA with 32 strikeouts along the way.

As a reliever, he has a bit of a strange repertoire, using a sinker, knuckle curve and a cutter as his primary pitches. Statistically, the sinker isn't even his best pitch, but he puts 7.7 inches of movement on that pitch, which is the second-most in the big leagues behind Yennier Cano's 8.5 inches of vertical drop.

By the way, Paul Skenes has 7.1 inches of vertical drop on his sinker, so that must mean Little is doing something right. The odd thing is Little only struck out 5.6% of batters on his sinker, while his curveball, striking out 46.7% of batters, does the heavy lifting in the strikeout department.

And while he didn't start out the season pitching in high-leverage situations, Little worked his way into John Schneider's circle of trust, becoming the third-best reliever on the Blue Jays this year after Chad Green and Genesis Cabrera. I'm not sure if that says more about the quality of Blue Jays relief pitchers, but either way, Little earned his keep and has a decent shot at making the team next year.

When constructing a bullpen, it always helps to have reliable left-handers to choose from, and at the end of the season, the Blue Jays had two of them in Little and Cabrera.

With a strikeout rate of only 18.7%, Little isn't the guy you'd turn to when you need swing-and-miss stuff to strand baserunners in a high leverage situation, but he doesn't walk very many batters with a 9.8% walk rate.

Let's also talk about Little's ability to put the ball on the ground at 70.9%. That makes him a left-handed version of Adam Cimber circa 2021, but turned up to 11. That led all MLB relievers in 2024 with a minimum of 40 innings pitched, Little was a ground ball machine.

And while it wasn't that costly for him in 2024, there's always the fear that the league will make an adjustment and start lifting those balls for doubles and home runs. But because he gets so much drop on that sinker, it's put into play as a ground ball 76.4% of the time.

Again, it may not be the sexiest way to record outs, but from a core of relievers that struggled to mitigate disaster in 2024, Little was one of the few pitchers who knew how to keep damage to a minimum. And with that pitch mix and a half-decent defence behind him, those numbers shouldn't waver.

There is going to be a lot of turnover in the Blue Jays bullpen this winter, but one player who I expect to be back for 2025 is Little. He may not become the de facto seventh-inning guy like he did at the end of last season, but most teams would gladly a sub-4 ERA from a middle reliever.

Just by the nature of signing or trading for higher-quality arms, Little will move down the bullpen depth chart a few rungs, but he was an unsung hero of the 2024 roster and could play a similar role next season as well.

Brendon Little was one of the few feel-good stories in the Blue Jays’ bullpen

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