Latest Blue Jays acquisition puts Toronto's bullpen at the top of the American League.

The club has added some depth arms on minor league deals or waiver claims like Michael Petersen, Kevin Gowdy, Eric Lauer, Josh Walker, and Bobby Milacki and brought back Eric Pardinho and Adam Kloffenstein as a free agent signings this winter.

The Blue Jays will also have a Rule 5 player on the roster in Angel Bastardo, who will start the year on the IL and potentially be in the roster picture towards the back half of the campaign as he recovers from Tommy John surgery (and has to be on the 40-man given the Rule 5 aspects).

On the 40-man roster side, the Blue Jays added right-hander Nick Sandlin from the Guardians (as part of the Gimenez deal), signed former Blue Jays hurler Yimi Garcia to a two-year pact, and brought back former top prospect Jeff Hoffman, who has transitioned from a starter to an elite late-inning reliever over the past few seasons.

The Blue Jays are positioning him to be the closer for this relief group, which makes sense given his 2023 and 2024 seasons seeing him excel in a similar role in terms of late-inning, high-pressure situations.

The signing of Max Scherzer to a one-year $15.5 million contract will impact a couple of players, but right-hander Yariel Rodriguez will feel the most impact compared to the rest of the roster.

Yariel Rodriguez moving to the bullpen in 2025 is a huge benefit for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Throughout his professional career, Rodriguez has been primarily used a reliever just once (2022 in Japan).

In the bullpen for the Chunichi Dragons in 2022, Rodriguez made 56 appearances for the Japanese club.

Across 54 2/3 innings, he collected 60 strikeouts while allowing just 32 hits and seven earned runs, posting a 1.15 ERA and a 0.915 WHIP in the process.

Those numbers, combined with what the Jays need to round out the bullpen, make Rodriguez a good fit as a reliever for 2025.

A fly-ball pitcher by trade, Rodriguez boasts a five-pitch mix that is led by his four-seam fastball and his slider.

While he also mixes in a sinker, curveball, and split-finger, if he were to hone in on three to four offerings and drop one pitch (the curveball, for example) in the bullpen, he could see better results as he doesn't need the additional offerings to get through a lineup three to four times a game.

His fastball was turned on quite a bit last year and came in at a -5 pitching run value, so he could choose to lean on his sinker more and try to create more groundballs.

This mentality, compiled with his slider that boasted a 33.5% whiff rate, would benefit him well in the relief corps.

Rodriguez also benefits by having to face the order fewer times per outing, a stat that drastically climbs for the right-hander - especially through the third time in the order.

While the sample size is limited to just 29 at-bats, the third time through the order saw Rodriguez's opposing hitters stat line numbers jump over 1.5 points in each measurable, and the OPS values jump from .658 to .688 to 1.041 through the first, second, and third times through the order respectively.

Looking at the current roster and the bullpen as a whole, the team lacks a genuine middle relief/long-man type of arm-someone who can eat up two to three innings (or more) or start in a pinch when needed, similar to when the Blue Jays employed Ross Stripling a few years ago.

Until we see Rodriguez pitch out of an MLB bullpen, there will be some uncertainty about his performance in that role.

But he seems likely to at least give the Blue Jays above-average production.

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