Blue Jays show interest in Raisel Iglesias

The Blue Jays are among the teams interested in a free agent closer Raisel Iglesiasreports Francy Romero. That makes sense with Toronto on the hunt for a late-game arm. They are also linked to Edwin Diaz at the top of the aid market.

Iglesias remains one of the better relievers in the MLB as he enters his age-36 season. The Cuban-born right-hander is averaging a 3.21 in 67 1/3 innings for the Braves. Iglesias went 29-34 in save opportunities, narrowly missing what would have been his sixth career 30-save campaign. Iglesias struck out an above-average 27.4% of opponents while limiting walks to a 6% clip. He landed swinging strikes nearly 15% of the time, while still causing opponents to chase outside the strike zone on a regular basis.

Overall, this year was Iglesias’ worst since at least 2019. That’s mainly due to a spike in home runs early in the season. He faced seven longballs before the end of May and had an ERA of almost 6.00 in June. Once he got the home runs under control, Iglesias looked like his usually excellent self. He has a 1.96 ERA with a 29.3% strikeout rate over the last four months. Opponents hit .163/.224/.219 with one home run in their last 174 at-bats.

Jays general manager Ross Atkins has already said they are not committed to staying Jeff Hofman in the ninth inning. By signing a closer, manager John Schneider could use Hoffman earlier in games as leverage for multiple innings. Hoffman allowed the second-most home runs (15) among MLB relievers this year. The longball is also the biggest concern for Iglesias, but not to the same extent.

Iglesias’ age will limit him to a maximum of two years. He should get an eight-figure annual salary. The Braves didn’t experience much trade interest, as Iglesias made $16 million last summer. He increased his stock by allowing just one run in 23 2/3 frames after the deadline, so it’s not out of the question that he commands something similar to this year’s salary on the open market. That would be especially true if he signed a one-year guarantee, although MLBTR projected he would get a two-year contract worth $13 million per year.

The Dodgers are the only other team publicly linked to Iglesias this season. The Braves don’t have an obvious replacement and will likely stay in touch, but president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said this week they are focusing on the shortstop and rotation in the short term. If Iglesias receives a strong two-year offer this month, he could sign elsewhere before the Braves are ready to move to the bullpen.