The Blue Jays announced that left-hander Tim Mayza has been designated for assignment. Righty Jose Cuas (just claimed off waivers from the Cubs last week) has been called up from Triple-A Buffalo to take Mayza’s spot on the active roster.
Today’s news likely ends Mayza’s tenure with the Jays, which began when he was a 12th-round pick for the club in the 2013 draft. (Danny Jansen was a 16th-round pick in that same draft and is now officially Toronto’s longest-tenured player.) Designating Mayza would’ve seemed inconceivable just a few months ago, as Mayza was quietly one of baseball’s better relievers in 2023, posting a 1.52 ERA over 53 1/3 frames. A 3.11 SIERA was a little less flattering, but Mayza still had solidly above-average walk and strikeout rates, as well as elite grounder (58.2%) and barrel (4.1%) rates. Mayza allowed only two homers over his 53 1/3 innings, as while he allowed a fair amount of hard contract overall, his ability to keep the ball in the park greatly limited the damage.
However, the dropoff has been as sharp as it was unexpected. Mayza has already allowed three home runs in 24 2/3 innings this season, contributing to a garish 8.03 ERA. The Statcast numbers reveal a slew of below-average metrics, including a 13.2% strikeout rate that is among the worst in the league, and a 39.1% grounder rate that is far below the 54.4% career average that Mayza carried into 2024. A .367 BABIP has partially contributed to Mayza’s problems, though while his 5.03 SIERA is three runs lower than his ERA, it is clear that Mayza’s struggles are due to far more than just bad batted-ball luck.
Things reached a low point in Mayza’s last two outings, as he faced eight batters and allowed seven earned runs without recording even a single out. These two disastrous performances (against the Red Sox last Monday and against the Yankees last night) raised his ERA from 5.47 to 8.03, and essentially might have forced the Blue Jays’ hand in making a tough call on a veteran reliever.
Starting the season with four years and 156 days of MLB service time, Mayza needed just 16 more days on the big league roster to hit the five-year threshold, so he is now far beyond that mark. Five years of service time gives Mayza the right to refuse a minor league assignment, and though he has two minor league options remaining, it could be that Mayza exercised his right to pass on a trip to Triple-A Buffalo.
In deciding to DFA Mayza, Toronto has now left open the possibility that he could leave the organization altogether via waiver claim. A claiming club would have to cover the roughly $1.7MM remaining of Mayza’s remaining salary, and since the Jays would be eating that money in the event of a release, it is possible teams might choose to see if Mayza indeed hits the open market in order to save some cash. That said, Mayza’s salary isn’t particularly onerous, so any number of teams with bullpen needs might very well be looking to put in a claim or to work out a trade with the Blue Jays during the DFA period. As rough as Mayza’s performance has been in 2024, he could be an interesting change-of-scenery candidate, given his stronger career track record.
After a Tommy John surgery cost him the entire 2020 season, Mayza returned to post a 2.67 ERA over 155 relief innings from 2021-23, along with a 24.9% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate, and 58.3% groundball rate. He has naturally been a lot better against left-handed batters than right-handed batters over his career, and even amidst his struggles this year, Mayza has held lefty swingers to a .280/.362/.360 slash line in 58 PA. The batting average and OBP leave something to be desired, but at least this version of Mayza can still limit the power of left-handed hitters.
Since Mayza is also a Super Two player, he has another year of arbitration eligibility before hitting free agency following the 2025 season. If Mayza joins another team and gets back to his old form, he suddenly becomes an inexpensive piece for a club’s roster next season as well.
Blue Jays relievers have a collective 4.78 ERA this season, ranking 28th of the 30 Major League bullpens. Injuries to Jordan Romano and Yimi Garcia haven’t helped matters, but Romano was struggling even when not on the injured list, and both Mayza and Erik Swanson (who has been optioned to Triple-A) saw their production crater after impressive 2023 seasons.
Between the leaky bullpen, the inconsistent offense, and a starting rotation that pretty average across the board, not much as gone right for the Blue Jays as they have stumbled to a 37-44 record. The Jays already parted ways with another struggling homegrown player in Cavan Biggio earlier this month when Biggio was traded to the Dodgers, and if Mayza is also traded or claimed away on waivers, the moves essentially act as harbingers that Toronto will be selling at the deadline. GM Ross Atkins said two days ago that the Jays are still “focused on building the best possible team we can this year,” but “if we get to a point where we need to adjust, we’ll be prepared to do so.“