Former Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt has found a new home for the 2026 season.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported last night that the right-hander and the Baltimore Orioles have agreed to a one-year, $18.5 million contract pending a physical.

The 36-year-old has spent the last three seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and posted a 3.89 ERA across 96 games in Toronto. He was an integral part of the rotation for the Blue Jays, logging over 541 innings for the team out of the rotation, the most of any Blue Jays starter in the last five years. He also set a career high in wins with 16 in the 2023 season, highlighted by a complete game against the Atlanta Braves in early May.

With the signings of Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce, losing Bassitt was looking inevitable for the club, but there was always a sense that a reunion was possible, given the new updates about Shane Bieber likely starting the season on the IL and Bowden Francis being out for the season. As a reliever for the Blue Jays in the 2025 postseason, Bassitt was lights out with a 1.04 ERA in seven games, allowing just one earned run in that span.

Bassitt joins a unique Orioles squad that is looking to bounce back after a tough season from a pitching standpoint.

In 2025, Baltimore ranked 26th in ERA last season and gave up the fourth most home runs of any team in baseball. He joins a rotation flanked by Trevor Rogers, Dean Kremer, Zach Eflin, Kyle Bradish, and Shane Baz.

What Bassitt brings to the table is a slew of eight different pitches varying from a sinker, cutter, curveball, four-seam fastball, sweeper, slider, changeup and splitter. His sinker provided him a lot of success in Toronto as batters were held to just hitting .220 against it, but it has inflated to .326 in 2024 and .297 in 2025.  He also surrendered 22 home runs last season, which would have tied him for second on the Orioles behind former starter Tomoyuki Sugano.

Bassitt took to social media to pen a farewell to Canada and the Blue Jays, whom he leaves with a slew of positive memories. One of which includes his charitable endeavour known as ‘Bassitt’s Pitch In’, which donated $10,000 to the Jays Care Foundation every time he was credited with a win during the season.

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