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Looking at where players from the 2017 Blue Jays are now
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro - Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Jan 10, 2026, 16:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 10, 2026, 11:26 EST
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The 2017 Toronto Blue Jays were in a weird spot.
In 2015, the very and rather special Toronto Blue Jays made it to Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, unfortunately falling to the Kansas City Royals despite having the tying run on third. They had a chance to win that series, but the same cannot be said for their matchup against Cleveland in the 2016 ALCS, as they lost in five games in gentleman sweep fashion.
Entering 2017, the core of the team was getting old. José Bautista was 36, Russell Martin was 34, Josh Donaldson was 31, Troy Tulowitzki was 32, Kendry Morales, who was Edwin Encarnación’s replacement, was 34. On the pitching side of things, Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, and Francisco Liriano were 33 and 34. Their two promising pitchers, Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman, were still in the mid-20s.
Unfortunately, the Jays got off to a rough start, beginning April with an 8-18 record. They had a strong May (18-10), but had a record below .500 in both June and July. Entering a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 18, the Jays were 10-5, moving them to just three games behind the second wild card, albeit in a logjam of teams.
The Blue Jays lost all three games against the Cubs, suffering defeats by the score of 7-4, 4-3, and 6-5, the latter being a walk off. They won just three more games in August, going 3-7, before posting a 13-14 record in September, with an additional win in their lone October game.
At this point, the Blue Jays hadn’t quite committed to the rebuild, but they did make some selling moves at the deadline. Chief among those moves were trading Francisco Liriano to the Houston Astros for Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernández, an absolute steal.
It’s hard to believe 2017 was eight seasons ago, and how much the Jays’ fortunes have changed, as well as the landscape of baseball. I still haven’t quite registered that 2017 was nine years ago, but there are still players on the 2017 Blue Jays who are still active. Let’s take a look at who is still playing.

Luke Maile

Luke Maile has played in the big leagues in all but one year (2020) since 2015, surprising, right? There was a span early into the 2018 season where he slashed .324/.403/.500 with two home runs in 77 plate appearances from the beginning of the year until May 16, what a time to be alive.
Since departing the Blue Jays after the 2019 season, Maile has played with the Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Guardians, Cincinnati Reds, and Kansas City Royals. It was with the Royals he most recently saw big league action, slashing .244/.346/.356 with a home run in 54 plate appearances in 2025.
Maile, like a lot of players on this list, is a free agent.

Teoscar Hernández

The best player on the list of “2017 Blue Jays still playing” is by far Teoscar Hernández. Acquired before the 2017 trade deadline, it took Hernández a couple of years to figure it out, but after being optioned to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons in 2019, Hernández became a strong hitter.
From Jun. 5, 2019 (the day he was recalled) until he was traded after the 2022 season, Hernández slashed .277/.332/.525 with 96 home runs in 1,660 plate appearances with the Blue Jays, giving him a 131 wRC+ in that stretch. After the conclusion of the 2022 season, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners for Erik Swanson and Adam Macko, had a rough 2023 season, but then won back-to-back World Series in 2024 and 2025.
Of the trades the Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro regime has made, I’m sure they’d love a re-do on this one, albeit we’ll see how Adam Macko does whenever he’s called up. Hernández still plays for the Dodgers.

Rob Refsynder

Before the 2017 trade deadline, the Blue Jays sent Ryan McBroom to the New York Yankees for Rob Refsynder. His stint with the team was brief, playing just two months with the team and batting under the Mendoza Line. However, he did give us this sweet slide in extra innings.
Around this time, there were a handful of players the Jays acquired who figured it out after departing the Jays, Gio Urshela is another player to come to mind. The same was the case for Refsynder, as he went on to be a productive right-handed outfielder who mashes lefties, posting a 146 wRC+ in 2022, a 132 wRC+ in 2024, and a 128 wRC+ in 2025.
This off-season, Refsynder signed a one-year deal with the Seattle Mariners.

Richard Ureña

Richard Ureña hasn’t played a professional game since 2023, and hasn’t played a big league game since 2019, but he has yet to retire. Dec. 30 marked six years since the Jays designated Ureña for assignment, which is a bit disappointing considering he was one a top 100 prospect in baseball.
After being claimed by the Baltimore Orioles in early 2020, Ureña didn’t get into a game with them due to the pandemic, returning to the Blue Jays for the 2021 season. With the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons, he slashed .272/.310/.438 with nine home runs in 350 plate appearances. Ureña played another 37 games with the Washington Nationals’ Triple-A team in 2022, and then tore up the Atlantic League in 2023. 
Ureña hasn’t played since the 2024-25 Winter League, and even then, he only received two plate appearances.

Dwight Smith Jr.

In MLB Pipeline’s top 30 prospect list for the Blue Jays in 2015, Dwight Smith Jr. ranked as their 12th-best prospect. He made his debut in 2017, where he slashed .370/.414/.444 with two doubles in 29 plate appearances. He also had some success in 2018, slashing .262/.347/.477 in 75 plate appearances, but was traded to the Baltimore Orioles before the 2019 season.
He played two seasons with the Orioles, receiving 392 plate appearances in 2019, but hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2020. Since then, he’s played in Mexico for two different organizations, the Atlantic League for two different organizations, as well as in the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox organizations. 
Smith Jr. most recently played for Charros de Jalisco of the Mexican League.

Marcus Stroman

Switching gears to pitchers, Marcus Stroman is the best of the four still active. He had a strong 2017, posting a 3.09 ERA and 3.90 FIP in 201 innings pitched, but struggled in his 19 starts in 2018. After a strong start to his 2019 season, the rebuilding Blue Jays sent Stroman to the New York Mets for Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson.
Because of the pandemic, Stroman opted out of the 2020 season, but returned to the Mets in 2021 when he posted a 3.02 ERA and 3.49 FIP in 179 innings pitched. Stroman then pitched two seasons with the Cubs, posting two sub-4.00 ERA seasons. In the 2023/24 off-season, Stroman joined the New York Yankees.
It hasn’t worked out well in his return to the American League East. In 2024, Stroman had a 4.31 ERA and 4.62 FIP in 154.2 innings pitched, as the Yankees went to the World Series. In 2025, Stroman made just nine starts, where he had a 6.23 ERA and 5.19 FIP in 39 innings pitched.
On Aug. 1, 2025, the Yankees released Stroman, and he remains a free agent.

Casey Lawrence

Casey Lawrence’s career can be an article in itself. The skinny is that he signed as an undrafted free agent in 2010, making his big league debut in 2017. In 13.1 innings pitched with the Jays, he had an 8.78 ERA and 6.53 FIP. He was DFA’ed in early May 2017, and claimed by the Seattle Mariners.
Over 42 innings with the Mariners in 2017, Lawrence had a 5.57 ERA and 4.87 FIP, and even appeared in 11 games for them in 2018. His 2019 was spent in Japan, but returned to North America on a minor-league deal with the Minnesota Twins, not appearing in a game.
After pitching in the Atlantic League, Lawrence rejoined the Blue Jays in 2021, pitching exclusively in Triple-A. The righty returned to the big leagues in 2022, posting a 7.50 ERA in 18 innings pitched. Lawrence returned to the Blue Jays on a minor league deal in 2023, but didn’t pitch in the big leagues and eventually opted out, signing with the St. Louis Cardinals. Over 27.1 innings pitched, Lawrence had a 6.59 ERA and 6.44 FIP.
Lawrence didn’t pitch in the big leagues in 2024, but he spent the entire season in the Mariners organization. Following 2024, Lawrence re-signed with the Mariners. He appeared in four games with them, two against the Blue Jays, before he was DFA’ed and claimed by the Jays.
The 38-year-old only pitched in one game with the Jays before being designated for assignment. After electing free agency, Lawrence signed with the Mariners… again. In the following month, he was added to their roster, pitched a game, and was designated for assignment for the sixth time in 2025. He elected free agency, then re-signed with the Mariners on another minor league deal
At the end of November, Lawrence signed a minor league deal with the Mariners again. In 2025, he signed five different minor league deals and was DFA’ed six times.

Matt Dermody

Matt Dermody pitched 22.1 innings with the Blue Jays in 2017, posting a 4.43 ERA and 6.25 FIP. Unfortunately, he underwent Tommy John early into the 2018 season after five innings, then pitched just 23 innings with the Bisons in 2019.
In 2020, he signed with the Sugar Land Skeeters, then of the Atlantic League. He returned to the big leagues that season, pitched an inning with the Chicago Cubs, before spending the 2021 season in Japan. The 2022 season saw him return to the Cubs organization, mostly pitching in Triple-A, but getting another inning in the big leagues. Dermody also pitched eight innings in Korea in 2022.
Like the 2022 season, Dermody spent most of the 2023 season in Triple-A, but received four innings with the Boston Red Sox. His last two seasons has been spent with the Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League

Tim Mayza

Lastly, Tim Mayza spent parts of 12 seasons with the Jays organization, as he was drafted in 2013 and made his debut in 2017. The lefty had a strong 2018 season, appearing in 37 games with a 3.28 ERA and 3.36 FIP. His 2019 season was cut short, as he left a game in September and needed Tommy John surgery.
He returned in 2021 and became one of the Blue Jays’ best relievers in the pen, posting a 2.67 ERA and 3.20 FIP in 155 innings pitched from 2021 until 2023. That 2023 season saw Mayza post a 1.52 ERA and 2.60 FIP in 53.1 innings pitched, as he was one of the best relievers in baseball.
Unfortunately, he struggled in 2024 and was eventually designated for assignment, landing with the New York Yankees. He pitched better with them over his last 15 games of the season, turning that into a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates heading into 2025. There, he pitched in seven games, with a 2.89 ERA and 3.46 FIP in 9.1 innings pitched.
In late August, the Philadelphia Phillies claimed Mayza, but he struggled with the playoff bound team, posting a 4.91 ERA and 5.04 FIP in 7.1 innings pitched. Mayza is currently a free agent.
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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