The Blue Jays Are Taking Extreme Measures With Their Best Left-Handed Reliever

Mason Fluharty is having a roller coaster season so far. In March and April, he had a 7.36 ERA, a 1.73 WHIP, and a 16:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing batters to hit .286 over 11 innings. Since then, the lefty has been one of the best pitchers in the majors. Fluharty is sporting an astounding 0.69 ERA and 15:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 13 innings in May and the first few days of June.

With his dominance lately, the Blue Jays have started taking an interesting approach with the lefty. That approach lets him see only three or four batters, then the team takes him out of the game regardless of whether he has finished a full inning. Of his 17 appearances since May 1, Fluharty has faced three or fewer batters in 11 of them, and in eight of those 11 appearances, he didn't complete a full inning. 

In 2020, MLB implemented a rule requiring relievers to face at least three batters or complete an inning before they could be replaced. So, Fluharty facing the bare minimum and then being replaced without completing an inning is the equivalent of being a LOOGY during the years before the rule change. LOOGY means "left-handed one-out guy," and it refers to the time in baseball when teams had lefty specialists who would come into the game to face a left-handed batter and then be replaced after the at-bat.

Currently, Fluharty is on pace to throw 62 innings, but that would be over 85 games. He pitched 63.2 innings last year between Triple-A Buffalo and the majors and 67 innings for Buffalo the year before. Yet, that was over 66 games in 2025 and only 56 games in 2024. Even though the lefty is on pace to throw fewer innings than in either of those seasons, pitching him in 85 games, more than half of the season, would be risking an injury. 

Fluharty ranks first in MLB in games pitched (33), while teammate Brayden Fisher is tied for second (32). Pitching in that many games means they're warming up in the bullpen and entering the game, which puts a lot of strain on a pitcher's arm, even if it's only for three batters. It also means there will be a few times when Fluharty will be used on back-to-back days. This workload isn't sustainable over an entire season. 

The Blue Jays don't want to put their young reliever in danger of getting hurt, but they also can't afford to leave him sitting in the 'pen if the team wants to compete in the AL East. Fluharty ranks in the 92nd percentile or higher in expected ERA (2.16), expected batting average (.173), average exit velocity (85.7 mph), strikeout rate (29.8 percent), and hard-hit rate (32.3 percent), making him a valuable asset late in games.

Another contributing factor to the increased workload on the bullpen's best arms is the starting rotation's injuries. José Berríos, Dylan Cease, Shane Bieber, Bowden Francis, Cody Ponce, and Max Scherzer are all on the injury list, which has forced Spencer Miles to move to a starting role. However, he hasn't thrown more than 4 1/3 innings in a game, meaning the bullpen is needed to cover the rest of the innings.

Things get worse for manager John Schneider because he then has to follow up with a second bullpen game, since there are no viable starters available. The Blue Jays put a Band-Aid on the situation by trading for the recently DFA'd Simeon Woods Richardson for cash considerations. He has a 7.74 ERA over 47 2/3 innings and an abysmal 26:25 strikeout-to-walk ratio, making him a stopgap until real fixes arrive. 

The real fixes to the workload dilemma may be on their way. Scherzer and Cease are nearing the end of their rehab assignments with Triple-A Buffalo. Cease made a start on June 4, Scherzer will get a start on June 5, and Bieber, who has been out all season, will get the start on June 6 for the Bisons. Reliever Yimi García made a rehab appearance for Single-A Dunedin on June 3. Reinforcements can't come quickly enough to protect the young stars in the Blue Jays bullpen from being overworked and to keep them pitching well towards the end of the season.