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Blue Jays: It’s time to option Brendon Little
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Photo credit: © Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Apr 5, 2026, 08:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 5, 2026, 12:32 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays will need to make a roster move in the coming days.
For the third time in five outings, Brendon Little gave up three earned runs, this time coming in a disappointing 6-3 defeat at the hands of the Chicago White Sox on Saturday. The way that Little is pitching right now, he just can’t be on the roster.
Not including Tyler Heineman pitching in the series opener against the Colorado Rockies, the Blue Jays bullpen has given up 24 runs, 17 of which are earned. Little has been tagged for 10 of those earned runs, as well as another unearned run in Wednesday’s loss to the Rockies. 
Not just that, but three more of those earned runs have come with Little on the mound, allowing the inherited runners to cross home plate. At best, Little is pitching like a low-leverage reliever a team throws out there in mop up, but there haven’t been many scenarios to put him in that situation.
The Blue Jays are 1-4 when Little pitches. That’s not all on him, of course, but wins right now are just as important as they are toward the end of the regular season. With an easy start to their season, they should be doing significantly better than 4-4 after eight games, and right now, Little is unplayable. Quite frankly, he has been since the 2025 All-Star Game.
During the 2023/24 off-season, the Blue Jays traded cash for Little, and he had a solid campaign in 2024. Over 49 outings, he finished with a 3.74 ERA and 4.90 FIP. The lefty had a terrific start to the 2025 season, posting a 1.46 ERA and 2 FIP in 24.2 innings pitched over the first two months of the season. During that stretch, he had a 36.6 K% and 9.9 BB%.
By June, he started to struggle a bit, and post All-Star Game, Little had a 4.88 ERA and 3.76 FIP in 24 innings pitched. Little’s hot start was fueled by a ton of chase, but once batters started to adjust and lay off pitches outside the strike zone, his K% plummeted. From July 18th until the end of the season, Little had just a 24.1 K%, while his BB% jumped to 15.7%.
Those struggles continued into the postseason, famously giving up the game-tying home run to Cal Raleigh in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, before being tagged with two more earned runs. Then, Little gave up the walk-off home run to Freddie Freeman in Game 3 of the World Series.
It looked as if Little had figured it out in Spring Training, with a four-seam fastball sitting in the upper-90s, but his velocity has been down to start the season, likely because of how cold it is. Still, he isn’t throwing strikes, and when he is, the ball is usually in the stands.
There’s a big league pitcher somewhere inside Little, but the good news for the Blue Jays is that they can let him sort it out in the minor leagues. The left-handed pitcher has an option year left, meaning that the Jays can send him to the Buffalo Bisons and let him work on stuff while calling up a replacement, likely Chase Lee or Adam Macko.
We’ll see what happens in the coming days, but this is a move that the Blue Jays need to make. Hopefully, Little can right himself in the minor leagues.
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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