The Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen has quietly become the engine behind this team’s push, even if the broader baseball conversation hasn’t caught up yet.
Coming into the 2026 season, the Blue Jays’ identity was a hot topic. A lot of people figured the answer would be pitching, though most of that attention seemed aimed at the starting rotation.
The reality is a little different. This club is leaning hard on its relief corps, with Louis Varland, Tyler Rogers and Spencer Miles serving as the headliners while Mason Fluharty, Braydon Fisher and the rest have handled meaningful workloads of their own.
That group has been better than the outside perception suggests, and it has only sharpened as the season has worn on. Blue Jays relievers entered Friday with the eighth-best ERA in baseball at 3.68, even though they had thrown the fourth-most innings at 616. Since August 1, that number has dropped to 3.21.
Some of that damage came from pitchers who were never really part of the bullpen core. Since that date, 25 of the 56 earned runs allowed by Toronto’s relievers came from Simeon Woods-Richardson, Matt Waldron, Chad Dallas and Michael Lorenzen. All but Lorenzen are no longer with the team, and none of them fit the mold of a traditional reliever anyway; they were bulk arms asked to cover innings.
The more telling story is what the actual late-inning and middle-relief group has done. Varland and Rogers have been steady, but the biggest boost has come from names that don’t always grab the spotlight. Since July 29, the Blue Jays have had the second-best team ERA in the American League at 3.26.
Among the standouts: Mason Fluharty has a 0.00 ERA over 14.1 innings in that span, Paul Sewald has also posted a 0.00 ERA across 7.2 innings, Braydon Fisher has worked to a 0.49 mark over 18.1 innings, and Spencer Miles has delivered a 0.96 ERA in 18.2 innings. Fluharty hasn’t allowed a run in his last 13.2 innings, Fisher has given up just one in his last 17.1, and Sewald has thrown 8.2 scoreless frames since arriving.
Brendon Little has been effective too, even with the walks still hanging around. Over his most recent 13 innings, he has allowed only three runs while striking out 23.
Put it all together, and there’s a real case that Toronto’s true relievers belong in the same conversation as the best groups in the sport, alongside the Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres. The mix of top-end arms and depth has given this team a chance in tight games, especially when the offense has only managed a few runs.
That’s not a small thing. Without this bullpen, the Blue Jays would probably be buried in the standings. Instead, they’ve kept finding ways to protect slim leads and survive close games, and that matters even more with the final American League Wild Card spot in play.
And in October, the workload only gets heavier. Teams lean more on relievers once the starting rotation shrinks from five pitchers to three or four, which means any opponent facing Toronto is going to spend a lot of time dealing with this bullpen. That is not a comfortable assignment.
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