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Looking at past Blue Jays’ off-seasons to determine their timeline this off-season
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Photo credit: © John E. Sokolowski - Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Nov 24, 2025, 15:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 24, 2025, 13:58 EST
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The baseball off-season is notoriously slow.
After Nov. 21’s trade deadline came and went, the next notable event this off-season is the Winter Meetings, which start on Dec. 7. Usually, that’s when things start to pick up for the Toronto Blue Jays and the other 29 Major League Baseball clubs.
Using the last three seasons as a template, let’s take a look at when the Blue Jays start to make transactions.

Non-tender deadline

This season, the Blue Jays non-tendered the players they wanted to well before Friday’s deadline. Dillon Tate and Ryan Burr were outrighted on Nov. 6, electing free agency the same day. About a week later, Nick Sandlin was also outrighted, with the right-handed pitcher electing free agency as well.
That differs from the past two seasons. In 2024, Jordan Romano and Tate were non-tendered on the day of the deadline, with Tate later re-signing with the Jays. Cimber was the reliever non-tendered in 2023, with that deadline coming on Nov. 17, 2023.
There wasn’t much out of the ordinary this year, just that the Blue Jays made their decision sooner.

Minor League signings

The minor league signings have already started. A few days ago, it was reported that the Blue Jays signed utility minor leaguer Carlos Mendoza to a minor-league deal with an invite to Spring Training.
It’s around this time last year that the Blue Jays signed a few minor league deals, bringing back Braydon Fisher after his contract ended (a great decision) and signing Wilfredo Coredo. Both moves came in mid-November. Michael Stefanic and Kevin Gowdy also signed minor league deals in late-November/early-December. The same was the case on Dec. 1, 2023, when the Jays signed Andrew Bechtold.
Minor league deals tend to be sprinkled in throughout the off-season. Last off-season, the Jays signed Ali Sánchez, Eric Lauer, and Eric Pardinho a few days before Christmas. Payton Henry signed in early December 2023, while Paolo Espino was signed shortly before the holidays. The same case happened in 2022 as well. The most notable minor league signing in recent times came all the way in March, when the Jays signed Ernie Clement.
Expect there to be a few more minor league signings this off-season, potentially even before the start of the Winter Meetings.

Big league signings

Okay, but what about the meat and potatoes, the big league signings and the trades? Starting with the big league signings, the Jays haven’t signed a major league deal before the start of the Winter Meetings in the past three off-seasons. Kevin Kiermaier signed shortly after the Winter Meeting in 2022, and he was their first big league signing of the 2023/24 off-season as well, signing three days before the end of the year.
Last season, the first major league contract handed out was to Josh Walker on Dec. 20, 2024. It’s worth noting that the most notable name signings around the start of the Winter Meetings, Shohei Ohtani signed on Dec. 13, 2023, and Juan Soto signed on Dec. 11, 2024. If the Jays go big and sign a player like Kyle Tucker, perhaps they’ll sign him around this time.
Once the first major league signing is out of the way, the Jays tend to start signing players. After Kiermaier signed in 2022, Chris Bassitt signed just two days later. The Blue Jays then added Brandon Belt on Jan. 10, 2023, their two notable signings that off-season.
The 2023/24 off-season saw Isiah Kiner-Falefa sign just a day after Kiermaier on Dec. 29. It wasn’t until another month that the Blue Jays signed a notable player, agreeing to terms with Justin Turner, the 2023/24 version of the Brandon Belt signing.
Walker was the lone major league signing to end 2023, but the Blue Jays signed Jeff Hoffman on Jan. 10, starting a busy month for the team. They made a second signing 10 days later, agreeing to terms with Anthony Santander.
A trend with these signings is that the Blue Jays usually add two or three players from free agency to their big league roster through signings.

Trades

That said, the Blue Jays are active with trades… sometimes.
Of the next three categories, trades are the most random. Everyone remembers the Teoscar Hernández trade, in which the Blue Jays received prospect Adam Macko and reliever Erik Swanson. That recently celebrated its third anniversary last week. The 2022/23 off-season also saw the Daulton Varsho trade two days before Christmas, and a minor league trade in January.
That said, the Blue Jays didn’t make a trade during the 2023/24 off-season, at least not until Otto López was traded for cash in February. The 2023/24 off-season was a pretty rough one for the Blue Jays, as they didn’t sign a notable name nor improve their roster through trades. No wonder they finished with a 74-88 record.
They thankfully learned from their mistake last off-season. On top of adding Santander and Hoffman through free agency, the Blue Jays acquired Andrés Giménez and Nick Sandlin from the Guardians for Spencer Horwitz and Nick Mitchell on Dec. 10. The following month, they traded nothing to the Guardians, landing Myles Straw and international bonus pool money.
Trades tend to be completely out of the blue, take the Marcus Semien trade on Sunday as a prime example. Expect it to be the same scenario if the Blue Jays make a trade this off-season.
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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