🚨 JUST IN: Former Blue Jays starter is reportedly heading to the Hanshin Tigers, igniting major buzz around his next chapter ⚡.DD
The Toronto Blue Jays let one of their pitchers walk this offseason via unconditional release, and following that, he signed overseas with the Hanshin Tigers.
The Toronto Blue Jays have done a strong job building their starting pitching rotation over the course of the past few years, and with a few members hitting the open market this winter, things had to be revitalized a bit. With Shane Bieber being retained, the team also brought in free agent Dylan Cease on a massive seven-year contract.
Currently, the starting rotation would likely be Trey Yesavage, Kevin Gausman, Cease, Bieber and José Berríos, which is already immensely impressive without any changes. So, the Blue Jays have room to shed some of their previous depth from the 2025 season and work to build around this core group instead.
With that, Toronto recently released one of its starting pitchers from the previous season, who had not received a ton of playing time and was left off its postseason roster at multiple points. Instead, he will be heading to the NPB to pursue an opportunity with the Hanshin Tigers, which should end up being a positive for his career.
Which Former Blue Jays Pitcher is Heading to the NPB?
The player who will be heading to Hanshin is Easton Lucas, following his unconditional release earlier in the week. There have been a few players recently around the MLB who have followed a similar trajectory, and for many, it ends up revitalizing their career to some extent, letting them develop and get more playing time.
Lucas only ended up pitching 24.1 innings at the Major League level in 2025, and in six appearances (five starts) had a 6.66 ERA, 1.521 WHIP, 5.40 FIP, 23 strikeouts, 12 walks, five home runs allowed and 9.2 hits allowed per nine innings.
All things considered, he was solid in terms of hit prevention, but was allowing quite a few runs given the positions he was put in.
He did look solid in Triple-A though this past season, with a 3.78 ERA and 68 strikeouts to 28 walks. Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, that did not end up translating to his production at the MLB level, and he will now head overseas.
The NPB has been in a bit of a dead-ball era lately, with pitching stats inflating to the point where many players look outstanding, and many hitters look worse than their average years.
Provided no change occurs, this should allow Lucas to have a little bit of a boost to his metrics, on top of just having a new chance elsewhere with new coaches and teammates to learn from.
