Blue Jays could be threat to poach Yankees 1.69 ERA pitcher during MLB offseason
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Blue Jays could be threat to poach Yankees 1.69 ERA pitcher during MLB offseason originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The New York Yankees have multiple free agents this offseason who could interest others around the league, including veteran Paul Blackburn. Blackburn is coming off a season where he was used mostly out of the bullpen, appearing in 62 games and starting only two.
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For much of his career, the 10-year veteran has been a starter. However, since 2025 with the New York Mets and the Yankees in the second half of that season, he's almost exclusively been coming out of the bullpen. The Yankees have some things to work around this offseason in terms of adding to their bullpen, but it feels like Blackburn's a guy they have to return.
He was great in his new role, posting a 1.69 ERA in 62 appearances.
However, other teams around the league will be interested in him, possibly including the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays enter this offseason with a lot of needs on both sides of the baseball, especially the bullpen.
"Blackburn, meanwhile, shined in a new role after spending years as a middling starting pitcher. He recorded a 1.69 ERA and 1.094 WHIP in 85 innings spread across 65 appearances," Ben Wrixon wrote. "He was wonderfully versatile and extremely effective, even if his 3.75 FIP suggests he got somewhat lucky. …
"Blackburn, alternatively, would give Toronto another reliable arm in front of Varland, Tyler Rogers, and Spencer Miles. It wouldn't be surprising if whichever team signs him tries to stretch him back out into a starter, which would certainly make sense for the Blue Jays given their lack of rotation depth."
Bullpen arms have been weirdly expensive over the past couple of seasons, but Blackburn doesn't figure to be much because he's 32 years old.
While he was great for the Yankees this season, the one-time All-Star struggled mightily over the two seasons before this performance. That's likely going to have more of an impact than the 62 games he threw this season.
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