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Blue Jays place Brendon Little on paternity list, recall Lázaro Estrada
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Photo credit: © Brad Mills-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Aug 13, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 13, 2026, 16:04 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays have made a roster move ahead of their series finale against the Boston Red Sox.
On Thursday morning, the team announced that Brendon Little has been placed on the paternity list, allowing them to call up Lázaro Estrada, who’ll be active on Thursday afternoon.
Little made the Blue Jays out of Spring Training, but his struggles in the second half of 2025 continued, and he was quickly optioned. As of August 13th, the left-handed relief pitcher has a 9.98 ERA and 6.54 FIP in 15.1 innings of work.
That said, his numbers since in his last seven outings have been great. In seven innings of work, the southpaw has a 1.29 ERA and 2.65 FIP with a 42.9 K%. Little’s command issues are far from fixed, walking a quarter of the batters he’s faced in this stretch. Still, he’s starting to look like the pitcher that was successful during the first half of 2025, and that would be huge for a Blue Jays’ bullpen that is running on fumes.
There’s no better example of a bullpen running on fumes than Estrada needing to pitch in three consecutive games. He did just that this past weekend, picking up a win, a save, and a loss. The righty was recently sent down to make room for Simeon Woods Richardson, just to give the Jays another pitcher to eat some innings.
Usually, a pitcher who was just optioned can’t be recalled for another 15 days. The exception is for injury, or in this case, the paternity list. So far this season, Estrada has a 4.50 ERA and 5.91 FIP in 12 innings of work, appearing in seven games while walking and striking out eight batters. This is the fifth stint with the Blue Jays in 2026, which does have some ramifications.
Estrada is eligible to be optioned off the 26-man roster one more time this season. A player can be optioned five times in a season before needing to be outrighted the sixth time if a team wishes to get the player off the 26-man roster. This doesn’t include the initial option at the beginning of the season before rosters are announced.
At this point, the Blue Jays need to go for it, and having a pitcher that can eat two or three innings is very important for a bullpen running on fumes.
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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