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Former Blue Jays Trevor Richards and Carl Edwards Jr. elect free agency
Toronto Blue Jays Trevor Richards
Photo credit: © Isaiah J. Downing - Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Oct 16, 2025, 07:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 15, 2025, 20:04 EDT
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Two former Toronto Blue Jays pitchers will be looking for a new home this off-season.
According to this MLB Trade Rumors article, former Blue Jays pitchers Trevor Richards and Carl Edwards Jr. have elected free agency. Richards from the Arizona Diamondbacks and Edwards Jr. from the Rangers.
Richards had a weird tenure with the Blue Jays. They acquired him and Bowden Francis from the Milwaukee Brewers for Rowdy Tellez in 2021. Richards (and Adam Cimber) stabilized the Jays’ bullpen, helping them push for a postseason spot, falling just short on the final day of the regular season. Richards finished the 2021 season with a 3.31 ERA and 4.61 FIP in 32.2 innings pitched with the Blue Jays.
Then came 2022, 2023, and 2024. When on, Richards featured one of the best changeups in Major League Baseball, with a fastball that featured plenty of rise. There were stretches where he looked like one of the Blue Jays’ best relievers in the bullpen, before consistently getting hit around toward the end of the season.
By July of 2024, the Blue Jays were well out of the playoff race, and it looked as if Richards was going to be a chip to use at the trade deadline. After July 2nd’s game against the Houston Astros, Richards had a 2.44 ERA and 3.57 FIP in 44.1 innings pitched for the season. Then came the rest of the month, where he gave up 15 earned runs in just eight innings, bringing his ERA to 4.64.
Still, the Blue Jays were able to trade him in the final hour of the 2024 trade deadline, sending him to the Minnesota Twins for prospect Jay Harry. Richards finished that season with a 4.15 ERA and 4.17 FIP in 13 innings pitched, but he elected free agency and signed with the Chicago Cubs this past winter.
He never pitched with the Cubs in the big leagues, but returned to MLB with the Kansas City Royals and Arizona Diamondbacks, pitching five and two-thirds innings with a 7.94 ERA.
As for Edwards Jr., his tenure with the Blue Jays was brief, pitching just five and one-third innings with four earned runs allowed. Since then, he’s pitched in the big leagues for the Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels, and Texas Rangers, with the bulk of his playing time coming with the Nationals in 2022 and 2023.
Other players to elect free agency are Eric Haase, Chad Wallach, Akil Baddoo, Dominic Fletcher, Corey Julks, Keegan Thompson, and Randy Wynne.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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