The Toronto Blue Jays got a high-leverage reliever in free agency.
This is Blue Jays Nation’s annual 40-man roster review ahead of the new season. If you missed the most recent article, we looked at Eric Lauer. In this article, we’ll look at Tyler Rogers.
On Dec. 12, 2025, it was reported that the Blue Jays signed Rogers. It was made official just three days later.
Since the start of 2021, there have been 1,621 different players to throw a pitch in relief. No pitcher (or position player) has pitched more innings than Rogers, and it isn’t even particularly close. Over the past five seasons, Rogers has thrown 378.1 innings, nearly 40 more than Scott Barlow. That isn’t just the most for any pitcher out of the bullpen, but the 154th most for any pitcher to throw a pitch in the big leagues the past five seasons.
That durability is something that the Blue Jays love and on top of durability, Rogers has been among the league’s best relievers in that span. In 2021, he had a 2.22 ERA and 3.28 FIP in 81 innings pitched. The following season, Rogers’ ERA of 3.57 was the highest of the last five years, while also posting a 3.44 FIP. He responded with a 3.04 ERA and 3.76 FIP in 74 innings in 2023, and a 2.82 ERA and 3.56 FIP in 70.1 innings in 2024.
For the first time in his career, Rogers pitched outside of the San Francisco Giants organization in 2025, as he was traded to the New York Mets before the deadline. As a whole, he had a 1.98 ERA and 2.88 FIP in 77.1 innings pitched.
Of any reliever with 50 innings pitched in 2025, Rogers’ ERA of 1.98 ranked as the eighth-best ERA. Opening up the sample size to 30 innings pitched in relief, three other Blue Jays pitchers (Braydon Fisher, Eric Lauer, and Tommy Nance) join Rogers in the under 2.00 ERA club.
The thing is, Rogers isn’t a big strikeout arm by any means. In those five seasons, his best K% sat at just 19.4%, averaging a 17.6 K% for his career. What he does well is keep the ball on the ground and keep runners off the base by avoiding walking them. Last season, Rogers had a groundball percentage of 62.1%. That was among the league’s best, all while generating barely any whiffs and harnessing a fastball that averages 83.5 mph.
Because of his stuff, projection models are never particularly kind to Rogers. Fangraphs’ Steamer has him posting a 4.06 ERA and 4.05 FIP in 74 innings pitched, with a 16.1 K% and 5.4 BB%. It stands to reason he’ll do far better than that.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.