The Yamaguchi Era ends, the Phelps Era begins anew, and the Jays' roster is better off for it

Shun Yamaguchi was bad.

There’s no getting around that fact. The former Yomiuri Giants star allowed 23 earned runs in 25 2/3 innings for the Blue Jays in 2020. He struggled to adapt to the lower-seamed North American baseball, ended up last in Charlie Montoyo's bullpen pecking order and, save for a couple weeks where it looked like he might have finally got his splitter going, never really earned a bigger opportunity than that.

Chase Anderson, who had a 7.22 ERA and gave up nearly three home runs for every nine innings pitched, managed to land a spot on the Jays’ wild card series roster last fall. Yamaguchi did not. He hung onto a spot on the big league roster for the whole year only because his contract — a two-year deal that saw him paid $3.175 million in each of 2020 and 2021 — prohibited the team from sending him to the minors without his consent.

It was for that same reason that he continued to keep a spot on the 40-man roster throughout this winter. Until Thursday morning, that is, when the Jays officially announced that he had been designated for assignment in order to make room for the club’s latest waiver claim, reliever Joel Payamps.

It soon became clear, however, that Payamps (who has minor league options remaining) and the small amount of roster flexibility he potentially could bring, were not the mains reasons for Yamaguchi’s departure. In fact, the Payamps Era seems likely to be over before it even starts, as late Thursday morning it was also reported that the club had signed a big league deal with a reliever who will take Yamaguchi’s place: former Blue Jays right-hander David Phelps.

My guess is the the Jays will designate Payamps for assignment in order to make room for Phelps, hoping that they can sneak him through waivers and onto Buffalo’s roster. Getting a free depth arm out of a transaction you were going to make anyway would be a tidy piece of business. But, of course, it’s not the big story here.

No, that would be the Jays’ choice to pay $4.925 million (plus up to another $750,000 more in incentives) to swap in Phelps for Yamaguchi.

I use that figure because that’s the total amount of dollars going to this one roster spot. Yamaguchi’s $3.175 million is guaranteed, while Phelps’ base salary will be $1.75 million.

The Yamaguchi thing is is disappointing, yet completely understandable. Yes, I know what a lot of fans think of him. It was hard for him to shake that awful first impression here. But there were, of course, some massively extenuating circumstances that made Yamaguchi’s year with the Jays the disaster that it was. Personally, I'm still intrigued by a guy who went 16-4 over 181 innings in Japan in 2019, with a 2.78 ERA, then came to North America and struck out more than a batter per inning during an otherwise extremely difficult season.

But Phelps is a much better option, even at a slightly inflated price, for several reasons.

First is the fact that, despite some less-than-stellar numbers overall, Phelps was really quite excellent for most of 2020. With an average velocity of 94.1 mph on his fastball, he was back to throwing as hard as he was before injuries sidetracked his career in 2017. Phelps had surgery to remove a bone spur back in September of that year, but by the following spring he still wasn't right, and ended up requiring Tommy John surgery that kept him out until his debut for the Blue Jays in June of 2019. He pitched only 17 1/3 innings for the Jays that year before being flipped to the Cubs for Thomas Hatch. (And given the track Hatch is on, Jays fans have to feel awfully good about that trade at this point.)

During that first stint in Toronto, Phelps averaged 92.1 mph on his fastball, yet still produced a respectable 3.62 ERA. And, in fact, that number was bloated pretty significantly by a poor performance in his last outing before the trade (which was also just the second time he'd pitched on back-to-back days since before the surgery). Through his first 16 2/3 innings with the Jays, his ERA sat at 2.16, and he'd racked up 17 strikeouts to go along with seven walks and a single home run.

Last year in Milwaukee he was even better than that. With his velocity back, Phelps struck out 20 batters over 13 innings. He seemed to have better feel for his pitches, too, walking just two over that span.

His season got ugly after he was dealt to Philadelphia though. As a member of a Phillies bullpen that was cursed all year, Phelps managed to keep his strikeout and walk rates where they'd been in Milwaukee, but somehow surrendered five home runs in just 7 2/3 innings.

That's obviously not great. It's also not something anyone should expect from him going forward. Coming into 2020, Phelps had a HR/9 rate of 0.95 over 269 big league appearances. He strikes guys out. He limits walks. He was generally pitching in either the seventh or the eighth innings for the Brewers as a key setup man last year. He throws, according to Statcast, four pitches — a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, and curve — that he uses in close to equal amounts and to hitters on both sides of the plate. He’s someone the Jays know and obviously like enough both on the field and in the room to have brought back.

He’s a guy who, had his season continued on the way it was going in Milwaukee, probably could have earned $5 million as a free agent in his own right.

The Jays are doing well enough in this deal, in other words. And that’s without yet even looking at what this means for the roster, which may be where it’s most important of all.

Yes, Phelps is a straight replacement for Yamaguchi. But I think he also makes A.J. Cole, who is on a minor league deal with an invite to camp, a bit less of a necessity.

Right now the Jays have Phelps, Kirby Yates, Rafael Dolis, and Tyler Chatwood projecting as relievers who are on big league deals and can't be optioned.

They also have Ross Stripling, Ryan Borucki, and Jordan Romano as likely members of the relief corps who do have options, but are going to be too important to see much time in the minors, if any.

That leaves room for either one or two more relievers, depending on whether they choose to go with a three- or four-man bench. Cole and Derek Fisher could end up getting those last two roster spots. Francisco Liriano could also be in that mix. But the Jays could — and should — instead choose to be a little bit more fluid.

Given the need to manage innings carefully in a year following one in which literally nobody pitched a full workload, it’s going to be important to be able to frequently cycle relievers up and down from the minors (or the taxi squad) to the big league roster. The Jays have plenty of options for roles like that — Trent Thornton, Julian Merryweather, Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, Patrick Murphy, T.J. Zeuch, Jacob Waguespack, Elvis Luciano, and Ty Tice are all on the 40-man, and all have minor league option years remaining — and now it seems as though the roster is better setup to make use of them.

Cole and Liriano? They’re maybe now more insurance than anything, and that’s probably the way it should be.

Going from “Yamaguchi and Cole” to “Phelps and maybe you don’t even need Cole ” turns an inflexible spot occupied by a bad player essentially requiring a caddy into a flexible spot and a stronger core groups of relievers overall.

Hard not to like it when you put it that way.

Top image: Screengrab via CITY TV/YouTube