The Toronto Blue Jays thought they were getting the version of Spencer Arrighetti who looked untouchable in May. Instead, they’ve mostly gotten the opposite.
Toronto landed Arrighetti at the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline in a deal that sent fan favorite Daulton Varsho to the Houston Astros. At the time, it made sense for a Blue Jays rotation hit hard by injuries. Arrighetti had just been named American League Pitcher of the Month in May after going 4-1 with a 0.93 ERA across five starts.
That version didn’t stick around.
Once June arrived, the wheels started coming off. Arrighetti’s regression eventually sent him to the 15-day injured list, where he was diagnosed with Morton's neuroma, which causes nerve pain in the foot. Since coming back, the outings have only gotten rougher, and the pitcher MLB saw at the start of the year has been nowhere to be found.
The numbers tell the story in painful detail. Toronto has gotten an 8.04 ERA from Arrighetti, along with four losses. Since his first start on Apr. 15 through May 28, he worked eight games to a 1.37 ERA and 3.99 FIP, striking out 43 batters in 47 innings.
Then came June 3 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Arrighetti gave up four earned runs, and his ERA jumped from 1.34 to 1.94.
The slide only deepened from there. He allowed 25 earned runs in June alone, finishing the month with a 9.00 ERA and pushing his season mark to 4.94.
He did manage a brief reset on July 3 against the Tampa Bay Rays, when he allowed just one earned run. But the next start brought another collapse, with eight earned runs against the Nationals.
Since June 3, Arrighetti has given up 52 earned runs, posted an 8.26 ERA, allowed 15 home runs and taken the loss in ten of 13 games. The Blue Jays haven’t seen the pitcher they were hoping for, and at this point, that version of Arrighetti may be gone for good.
Varsho hasn’t exactly taken off in Houston, either, but the Astros still had clear reasons for making the deal. They wanted his Gold Glove-calibre defense in center field and a left-handed bat, especially with their outfield sitting near the bottom of baseball in OPS at the time of the trade.
The offense has stayed inconsistent. Varsho is hitting just .173 through his first 30 games with Houston after batting .243 with Toronto before the swap. Even so, the Astros can still lean on his glove and his playoff experience as they try to hold off the rest of the AL West in September.
Toronto, on the other hand, needed Arrighetti to be more than a shaky placeholder, and that hasn’t happened. The situation looks even more frustrating when stacked against another deadline move: the San Diego Padres got Robbie Ray from the San Francisco Giants for their No. 13 and No. 21 prospects, and he has gone 26.1 innings with a 3.42 ERA through five starts. The Blue Jays made a similar kind of deal to get José Soriano, and the article suggests a package around Varsho and some lower-ranked prospects might have been enough to bring Ray to Toronto instead.
With the season winding down, the Blue Jays can’t keep sending Arrighetti out there if they want any chance to salvage a Wild Card spot. After an upsetting loss in their series opener against the Athletics, Toronto is a game back of the Cleveland Guardians for the final Wild Card spot.
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