Blue Jays Roster News: Jays Address Starting Pitching Depth With a Pair of Free Agent Deals

Ross Atkins must have stayed in on Friday night, because he’s had a productive Saturday morning, reportedly agreeing to contracts with pitchers Spencer Turnbull and José Ureña. After mentioning to the media before Friday’s series opener against the Cleveland Guardians that the Jays were looking at free agent pitching that could impact the big league roster, Atkins made good on his promise by adding a pair of free agent swingmen in quick succession.

Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet first reported that Spencer Turnbull has agreed to a major league deal with the Jays. Turnbull is a 32-year-old right-hander with major league experience both starting games and coming out of the bullpen. He spent 2024 with the Philadelphia Phillies and put together what is probably the best statistical season of his career to date, working a 2.65 ERA across seven starts and 10 relief appearances, before ending his season two months early with a lat strain.

Turnbull will go at hitters with a steady diet of 92 mph four-seam fastballs, but his sweeper was the featured pitch in 2024, as opponents hit just .145 with a 30.8 whiff percentage against it. Turnbull also throws a sinker, curveball, change-up, and slider, all of which he can land for strikes.

The Jays’ lack of starting pitching depth has been clear early in the season, and signing Turnbull is a solution to that problem. However, without a team until this point, Turnbull completely missed out on spring training and the first month of the season, so he will need to take some time to build up for major league games. It’s not yet clear if there’s a timeline for his first appearance as a Blue Jay, but I would expect the Jays to be relatively patient with Turnbull as he prepares to join the starting rotation or pitch bulk innings out of the bullpen.

Before Turnbull is ready to go, we can expect José Ureńa, who also reportedly agreed to a major league contract with the Blue Jays on Saturday morning, to get some burn in a bulk role.

Now 33 years old, Ureña has been around since 2015, working in a swingman role for most of that time. He began 2025 in Triple-A for the New York Mets, and was called up at the end of April, although just for just a single appearance, in which he gave up five runs across three innings, before getting DFA’d earlier this week.

I wouldn’t put much stock into that outing, although Ureña’s arsenal doesn’t offer as much upside as Turnbull’s. He did see success for the Texas Rangers in 2024, keeping hitters off balance by mixing a slider and change-up with his mid-90’s sinker. He doesn’t rack up a whole lot of swings and misses, striking out just 15.1% of the hitters he faced in 2024, but when he’s successful he’s able to use the sinker to induce a ton of ground balls.

Similar to Turnbull, Ureña offers some versatility with the ability to both start or throw multiple innings out of the bullpen. For the Rangers in 2024, he threw 64 2/3 innings in 32 appearances out of the bullpen to the tune of a 2.92 ERA, although he did get hit around in his nine starts, allowing opponents to hit .272 on route to a 5.08 ERA.

With both reported deals being of the major league variety, subsequent roster moves will need to be made upon making these deals official. We can point the finger at guys like Eric Lauer, Josh Walker, and Dillon Tate on the 26-man roster as potential names that could lose their spot in favour of Turnbull or Ureña. However, both of them will need 40-man spots, meaning it won’t be enough to simply option two of the guys mentioned above.

A final name that appears to remain in the mix to help the Blue Jays’ pitching depth is Casey Lawrence, whom the Jays claimed from the Seattle Mariners last week, although Lawrence was DFA’d and elected free agency before making an appearance for the Jays. The Jays would be hard-pressed to find him a 40-man spot, especially with Ureña and Turnbull now in the mix for a 26-man spot, but Lawrence would be another option with the ability to throw bulk innings.

Regardless of the necessary roster casualties to get Turnbull and Ureña on the roster, these moves are an encouraging sign that Ross Atkins and the Blue Jays’ front office recognized a hole in the roster, and are showing a sense of urgency to fill it.