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Looking at what the late-inning arms bring to the Blue Jays bullpen
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Photo credit: © Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Veronica Chung
Jan 17, 2025, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 17, 2025, 06:49 EST
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With spring training starting a month away, the Toronto Blue Jays have made some moves to shore up one of their Achilles heels’ from last season – the bullpen.
The Jays’ relief corps ranked 29th in ERA and K/9 last season and after letting some arms walk in free agency, Toronto’s front office brought back Yimi García on a two-year pact and signed a large three-year contract with former Philadelphia Phillies’ All-Star reliever Jeff Hoffman to replenish the much-decimated relief pitching core.
With these offseason additions, the Blue Jays now have two more late-inning pitching candidates to join the current group 0f, Chad Green and Erik Swanson. Below are what each potential late-inning relief pitcher brings to the table for Toronto: 

Yimi García

Through 10 seasons in the majors, Yimi García has amassed 398.1 innings and recorded a 3.59 ERA, 3.87 FIP, and a 1.054 WHIP split between five different squads. FanGraphs lists the Dominican reliever’s current role as a bullpen setup pitcher and the right-hander has managed many late-inning pitching work, especially with the Toronto Blue Jays. 
One of García’s better campaigns was the 2022 season, his first in Toronto, where he recorded a 3.10 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP in 61 innings pitched. Despite a few ups and downs across his career, the right-hander has been fairly consistent other than shakier seasons when he recorded a 4.21 ERA in 2021 and a 4.09 ERA in 2023. García also has been fairly unpredictable with six pitches in his arsenal. 
García mainly relies on his four-seam fastball with a usage up to 36.7%. He also uses curveball (19.7%) and sinker (16.5%) while mixing in sweeper (13.1%), change-up (9.5%), and a slider (4.5%) to build up his repertoire and so far in his career, these pitches have helped establish him as a reliable back end bullpen arm. 
Following a move to the Mariners at the deadline last year, García struggled with an elbow injury that shut him down early, but he still managed to record a 3.46 ERA, 3.73 FIP and 0.90 WHIP, giving the Blue Jays hope that he can bounce back in 2025. Barring that elbow flaring up again, García will be in the circle of trust on the team early on and will get the chance to prove himself again. 

Chad Green

Chad Green has amassed an impressive track record on the mound since his debut with the New York Yankees in 2016. The right-handed reliever has generated an 8.1 WAR with a 3.23 ERA and a 3.39 FIP in 449 innings pitched and 337 outings, 24 of which came as a starter early in his career. By and large, Green was a very consistent and reliable reliever for the Yankees across seven seasons, working in the setup role.
In contrast, the right-hander’s record with Toronto has seen its fair share of ups and downs.  Green missed most of the 2023 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery the year before and struggled to find his footing to round out the campaign, allowing seven earned runs through 12 innings of work to the tune of a 1.333 WHIP. Last year he re-found that rhythm, stepping up in the closer role when Jordan Romano landed on the IL for an extended period. Green pitched to a 3.21 ERA through 53 outings, racking up a career-high 17 saves while holding batters to a 2.4 BB/9 with a 1.031 WHIP. 
Given his solid track record, Green has found himself in high-pressure situations with Toronto. The right-hander commands three pitches in total with a four-seam fastball, slide and cutter in his repertoire. Specifically, Green heavily depends on his four-seam the most with usage up to 60% – he then mixes in a slider 39% of the time to diversify his game and throws in a cutter rarely by using it only 1% of the time. 
While Green may have managed many high-leverage situations for the Blue Jays, his ninth-inning stats last season were his downfall. With 35 innings pitched in the ninth, he yielded a 4.11 ERA and 1.14 WHIP, indicating that he may not be the best fit as a closer moving forward and one of the reasons the Jays went out and signed Jeff Hoffman. 
The South Carolina native has proven himself as one of the more dependable relievers in the Blue Jays’ pen. Green will most likely be asked to handle the seventh and eighth inning load for Toronto in 2025 and will get his chance to pitch in the ninth if Yimi García or Jeff Hoffman aren’t available. 

Jeff Hoffman

Jeff Hoffman’s journey in the majors hasn’t been the smoothest. Because of his rocky years early in his career, as he worked as a starter, especially with the Colorado Rockies, he possesses a 4.82 ERA and 4.63 FIP in 467 innings pitched across nine seasons. 
However, after some challenging times with the Rockies and Cincinnati Reds, Hoffman blossomed into one of the better relievers in baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies. Hoffman recorded a 2.29 ERA, 2.72 FIP and a 0.94 WHIP in his two seasons within the NL East and racked up a 12.0 K/9 to go along with a 2.7 BB/9, holding his opponents to a .180/.249/.295 slash line and a .544 OPS. 
With his impressive development as a bullpen arm, the 32-year-old reliever earned some time in the closer’s spot last year with Philadelphia and went on to become an All-Star for the first time in his career. Baseball Savant also ranks his chase %, whiff % and k% at the 96th percentile, confirming his elite pitching ability. 
In terms of the New York native’s arsenal, he uses a total of four pitches with a slider (40%) and four-seam fastball (39%) dominating his repertoire. His velocity in all four pitches is relatively decent with 96.6 mph for four-seam, 86.6 mph for slider, 90.5 mph for splitter and 96.7 mph for his sinker. 
With a total of 23 innings pitched in the ninth in the past year, the right-hander amassed a 1.96 ERA and 0.74 WHIP. His eight-inning heroics for the Phillies are also notable with a 1.99 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 31.2 innings pitched. The only knock on his tenure in the ninth inning is he did blow three saves last season, converting 10 of his 13 opportunities. 
Even though Hoffman’s pitching excellence didn’t come into play until a change of scenery and his role in 2023, his miraculous turnaround and underlying statistics offer hope for his repeated success. Fangraphs currently projects the New York-born reliever to record a 2.97 ERA, 3.38 FIP and 1.14 WHIP, reinforcing the continued positive expectation for the arm that the Blue Jays seem geared to be the team’s closer. He has the overlying medical saga in his back pocket heading into the new year as well, with Hoffman looking to prove the doubters wrong in Toronto. 

Erik Swanson

Erik Swanson had a roller coaster of a season in 2024, which distorted his overall pitching performance. Beginning with his son getting hit by a car (and thankfully recovering and is doing well) to an arm injury early out of the gate, Swanson was the shade of his former self last season. 
Career-wise, even with the rough campaign, Swanson still boasts an ERA of 3.97 and 4.28 FIP through 260.1 innings pitched, which is still largely around the MLB average. 
But the 31-year-old reliever hasn’t always had the most elite pitching records throughout his time in the big leagues. His first two seasons with the Seattle Mariners were challenging at best but Swanson began to find his rhythm in 2021, where he appeared in 33 contests and posted a 3.31 ERA with a 1.08 WHIP. In the last two seasons with the Mariners before the trade, Swanson produced a collective 2.50 ERA, 2.91 FIP and 0.95 WHIP and climbed up the bullpen ranks as one of the more trusted relief pitchers for the team with playoff aspirations. 
His initial season with Toronto after the trade was also quite outstanding as the reliever recorded a 3.51 FIP and a 145 ERA+ to go with a 10.1 K/9. Based on his past performances, Swanson was supposed to replicate his excellent pitching in the 2024 season. However, with injuries and his son’s accident in the past year, the North Dakota-born pitcher couldn’t quite reach the expectations, eventually spending some time in triple-A Buffalo to get away from the limelight. 
After the injury and demotion, Swanson finished the year with a 5.03 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP and unfortunately became part of the regressing Toronto’s bullpen narrative due to struggling so hard in the first half of this season. One positive for Swanson is that the second half of his campaign was back to form in some regards. He authored a 2.55 ERA and held opponents to a .656 OPS and a .182 BABIP and added 27 strikeouts through 24 2/3 innings. His FIP remained on the high side at 4.95, meaning the 10 walks and the five home runs he allowed came back to bite him in the seven earned runs he allowed through the 27 games, but there were many other positives in the conversation. 
When it comes to pitching repertoire, the 31-year-old uses a four-seam fastball for 50% of the time while mixing in a splitter (31%) and slider (19%) occasionally. His speed on all of these pitches isn’t high with his fastball topping at 93.9 mph, splitter at 84.9 mph and slider at 86.8 mph. This forces him to rely more on command and precision to become an effective reliever but his splitter is usually his go-to pitch to get swings and misses. 
Swanson enters this season looking to regain his 2023 form across the whole year, carrying that strong finish from last season in to the new campaign. For now, the 31-year-old pitcher will likely start with lower-leverage late-game situations and will have to prove himself again. The track record still believes in Swanson with a FanGraphs projection of 3.96 ERA, 4.19 FIP and 1.29 WHIP for the 2025 season. It’s now on the right-hander to create his renaissance.

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