The Toronto Blue Jays finished last in the American League East at 74-88 a year ago. Now, when you have a record like that, multiple things have to go wrong: Bo Bichette was injured and ineffective, George Springer struggled, and the bullpen produced one of the worst units in the sport.
If Toronto is going to turn it around this season, they’ll need each of those things to be better, which is why the news coming out of camp on reliever Erik Swanson is concerning.
Per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com on social media:
Erik Swanson had a little forearm fatigue and may be “a little behind”, but he’s optimistic that there’s enough time for him to be ready for Opening Day.
With six weeks to go until the regular season, of course there is time for Swanson to get healthy, but anytime you hear the word “forearm” in a sentence, it immediately causes your antennas to go up.
Now 31 years old, Swanson is a six-year veteran of the Seattle Mariners and Blue Jays. He made his debut in the 2019 season with Seattle and then became an elite reliever 2022 as the Mariners made the playoffs. The M’s traded him to Toronto after the 2022 season in the deal that sent Teoscar Hernandez to Seattle.
Swanson continued to be excellent for Toronto in 2023, but really struggled in 2024, going 2-2 with a 5.03 ERA in 45 games. He only threw 39.1 innings.
In addition to needing a bounceback year from Swanson, the Jays have signed relievers Yimi Garcia and Jeff Hoffman.