DALLAS — The Toronto Blue Jays are hoping to have snagged a potential swing-and-miss arm for their bullpen in a cost-effective way. Although they’ll need to wait a few months to see if their plan pays off.
The Blue Jays selected right-handed pitcher Angel Bastardo from the Boston Red Sox with the seventh pick in the major-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft on Wednesday at the Winter Meetings. The 22-year-old Bastardo is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery that he underwent last June. His timeline to return will not be until closer to the second half of the 2025 season.
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Per Rule 5 rules, the Blue Jays must pay the Red Sox $100,000 to select Bastardo and he must be placed on their 40-man roster immediately and remain there all season, or else be offered back to Boston for $50,000.
But, because of Bastardo’s injury, the Blue Jays can place him on the 60-day injured list when the season begins and as long as he is on the active roster for 90 days between the 2025 and 2026 seasons, he can remain on their club. For example, if Bastardo returned for 45 days in the second half of the 2025 season, he would need to be active for the first 45 days of the 2026 season, after which he becomes a 40-man roster player who can be optioned without any of the Rule-5 hangups.
According to Blue Jays assistant general manager Mike Murov, the club is not yet certain whether Bastardo will slot in as a starter or reliever but Toronto sees him as a “potential high-impact arm.”
“Potential high velocity paired with a really good changeup, where, if he lands in the ‘pen, there’s potential for impact there, but also think there’s an opportunity to start,” Murov said.
The Red Sox signed Bastardo, from Moron, Venezuela, as an international free agent in 2018. Across five seasons in the Red Sox organization, Bastardo had a 4.76 ERA in 78 games (74 starts) with 357 strikeouts in 327 1/3 innings. In 2024, while pitching with Boston’s Double-A affiliate in Portland, Bastardo suffered the season-ending elbow injury in June. Before that, he had pitched to a 5.36 ERA in 10 starts.
The Blue Jays viewed Bastardo’s medical file before selecting him and they’ve done enough background research to know what he’s like as a person, “which is important for rehab,” Murov said.
The Blue Jays have been vocal about wanting to add more swing-and-miss to their bullpen, especially after their relief group ranked as the second-worst bullpen in the majors, per ERA, last season. A great outcome of this move for the Blue Jays, then, would be if Bastardo can get healthy and slide into an impactful role in the bullpen late in the season.
The Blue Jays assistant GM said the right-hander’s fastball reached 97 mph in his last start before the injury and the club thinks there is “real stuff fastball upside” and he has “a really good changeup.”
“That gives him the sort of platoon-neutral arsenal that can fill a variety of roles,” Murov said. “That could be two innings of leverage relief. It could be one inning of leverage relief. It could be a bulkier role. We’ll learn more as we get our hands on him and get him through the rehab process.”
The Rule 5 Draft concluded this year’s Winter Meetings in Dallas. Barring any additional news on Wednesday, the Blue Jays will head north having made three moves at the meetings, including acquiring right-handed reliever Yimi García (yet to be officially announced), trading for Gold Glove second baseman Andrés Giménez and adding Bastardo. In the minor league portion of the draft, the Blue Jays also added right-hander Richard Gallardo and outfielder Jacob Wetzel from the Cubs.
All these additions feel like reasonable table-setting moves, but something bigger needs to follow — and top free agents remain available including starter Corbin Burnes, outfielders Teoscar Hernández and Anthony Santander and infielders Alex Bregman and Pete Alonso.
Adding an impact bat along with starting pitching and relief support remain areas the Blue Jays are focussed on as they return home.
“We’ve addressed some things this week but we’re not finished by any stretch. I think being opportunistic, but also knowing we need good players,” Murov said. “Our young player group has, I think, taken a step forward relative to where it was this time in previous seasons. So with that said, that allows us flexibility to add impact and hopefully add somebody who can raise the ceiling, rather than just the floor.”
(Photo of Bastardo: Ben McCanna / Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
