Who is the odd man out in the rotation?
On Tuesday (Nov. 2), the Toronto Blue Jays were at it again, bolstering their pitching for the upcoming season. The Blue Jays went overseas to recruit KBO 2025 MVP Cody Ponce to the organization on a three-year deal worth $30 million. With Ponce being mainly a starter during his time in Japan and Korea, the consensus is, he will be joining the Blue Jays’ rotation.
As it currently stands the Blue Jays now have eight players who could legitimately start games for them in 2026. So the question remains, who will be the odd man out in Toronto’s starting five?
Who is the odd man out in the Blue Jays rotation following the Ponce signing?
Let’s start off with the locks for the starting rotation. Kevin Gausman will be in the final year of his five-year contract with the Blue Jays. But he hasn’t done anything that would make him lose his spot after four consecutive years of excellence.
Shane Bieber wasn’t going to take the option on his contract to become a part of the bullpen. He will be leading the way in the rotation with hopes to bring Toronto back to the World Series. As for their big $210 million offseason splash with free agent starter Dylan Cease, that sizeable contract speaks for itself.
So with three pitchers already firmly set for the rotation for 2026, that leaves the likes of José Berríos, Trey Yesavage, Eric Lauer, Bowden Francis and Ponce to battle it out for the final two spots. With Francis having endured an injury-filled 2025 campaign, the bullpen is ideally where he will be working his way back into the majors this upcoming season. Lauer will likely serve as a swingman to act as valuable rotation depth piece for the Blue Jays in 2026, and thus begin the season as a reliever as well.
Which means one of Berríos, Yesavage and Ponce will be the odd man out for the Blue Jays starting five when Opening Day rolls around. However, each one of them has their own caveat that could end up costing them a rotation spot.
For Ponce, despite his exceptional 2025 performance with the Hanwha Eagles of the KBO in which he compiled a 17-1 record with a 1.89 ERA, 0.94 WHIP with 252 strikeouts in 180.2 innings pitched, he has to show that he can translate that success back in North America. After all, the last time he pitched in MLB, Ponce registered a dismal 0-6 record with a 7.04 ERA and 1.75 WHIP with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021. In addition, he did pitch mainly out of the bullpen with the Pirates back then, so he may be willing to accept a relief role if his rotation audition ends up failing.
In terms of Yesavage, he may appear to be the next big thing for the Blue Jays. But we must temper our expectations for now since after all, he really has only eight official major league starts under his belt. Especially when opposing hitters begin to figure him out, Yesavage will need to make the proper adjustments to remain effective. Otherwise, he could end up seeing more time in the minors to hone his craft.
As for Berríos, his struggles down the stretch last season led to his relegation to the bullpen prior to his season-ending injury. But one thing is for sure, the 31-year-old right-hander was not happy when given a relief role and is definitely looking to return as a starter for the 2026 season.
But now with the significant boost in starting pitching depth so far this offseason, making Berríos expendable to create more financial flexibility to potentially re-sign Bo Bichette and land a big bat or elite bullpen arm in free agency has become much more plausible than one would expect. That is because being able to fulfill the Blue Jays’ remaining needs could potentially set up Toronto for better sustainable success for the foreseeable future.
As a result, taking into consideration all of the circumstances involved, Berríos could suddenly find himself as the unfortunate odd man out of the Blue Jays rotation in 2026.
