After being designated for assignment last week by the Toronto Blue Jays, reliever Tim Mayza has passed through waivers and has been released by the club as per the MLB Transactions page. At the time of the designation, Mayza was the longest-tenured player on the Blue Jays active roster, having made his debut with the club back in 2017.

For the first couple of seasons, the southpaw rode the options bus between the big leagues and triple-A before securing a full-time spot in the bullpen in 2019, making 68 appearances while working as a specialist against left-handed batters (before the three-batter minimum rule). Mayza finished that season on the IL after undergoing Tommy John surgery in September and was DFA’d at the time as well, although he passed through waivers and later made his return to the Blue Jays roster for the 2021 season.

The Pennsylvania product’s best campaign came last season, where the left-hander posted a 1.52 ERA through 53 1/3 innings. He posted a 1.22 WHIP and struck out 53 batters en route to a 2.53 BB/9 and an 8.94 K/9 while holding opposing batters to a .644 OPS, allowing just nine earned runs on the season.

That success did not translate into the 2024 season, as Mayza struggled mightily out of the gate – amassing a 12.46 ERA with six runs through his first seven outings of the season. Before being designated for assignment, Mayza allowed five earned runs off of five hits against the New York Yankees back on June 28th, with the Blue Jays deciding to move on from the reliever after he gave up 22 runs through 24 2/3 innings to the tune of an 8.03 ERA.

A fan favourite given his connection to his teammates and considering he was the longest-tenured player with the organization, the stats and his ability to reject a minor league assignment even though he had minor league options (as Mayza has more than five years of service time) led to him being DFA’d in favour of other internal options in the bullpen – similar to Cavan Biggio earlier this season.

As a member of the Blue Jays, the 32-year-old pitched to a 3.87 ERA through 283 2/3 innings across 352 outings.

Now a free agent, Mayza is free to sign with any team as he looks to get back on track to the big leagues.