Blue Jays 2025 free agent target: Pete Fairbanks

If there’s one red flag that sticks out from Fairbanks’ 2025 campaign, it was his elevated HR/9 rate of 1.04, which was the highest of his career. Traditionally, he’s done a great job at keeping the ball in the yard, but after not surrendering a home run the first three months of the season, Fairbanks allowed seven round-trippers from July onwards.

Although he worked in the zone more in 2025 and limited his walks, Fairbanks upped his whiff rate by 4.3% and got batters to chase 6.3% more often in 2025 than they did in 2024.

The obvious comparison for Fairbanks is Trey Yesavage, both high arm slot guys whose release points are difficult to pick up for opposing batters. Fairbanks has an arm angle of 59 degrees, while Yesavage is slightly higher at 64 degrees. All Fairbanks needs to do is add a splitter to his arsenal, and he’d be a near spitting image of the Blue Jays’ young hurler.

Does Fairbanks fit on the Blue Jays?

Truth be told, almost every free agent reliever would be a good fit on the Blue Jays and help raise the floor on their current reliever depth chart. But Fairbanks checks a lot of boxes for the Blue Jays. He could slot in right away as the setup man to Jeff Hoffman in the bullpen, or he could even be interchangeable with Hoffman in certain instances.

It was interesting that Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins mentioned the team wasn’t “married” to keeping Hoffman as closer, which indicates the Blue Jays won’t shy away from bringing aboard other relievers with closer experience into the fold. Fairbanks isn’t in the upper echelon of Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams or Robert Suarez, but Fairbanks is the next tier down.

Unlike the Blue Jays’ previous late-inning reliever in Seranthony Dominguez, Fairbanks isn’t vulnerable to left or right-handed splits, so he’s ideal to attack any pockets of opposing lineups. If brought into the fold in Toronto, Fairbanks could complement Hoffman well as a two-headed monster at the back end of the bullpen.

Yimi Garcia would still be there as a high-leverage option for the Blue Jays, but in the event he suffers another injury or misses significant time again, at least Toronto would have an insurance policy for their setup role.

Spotrac puts Fairbanks’ value at three years and $41.3 million, while MLB Trade Rumours predicted two years and $18 million. I think anything north of $33-ish million is too high a valuation for Fairbanks, as I don’t think he’ll get much more than the Blue Jays gave Hoffman one year ago: $33 million for three years. It’s funny that most outlets predict both Fairbanks and Dominguez to land similar deals, but if I had to pick one or the other, my preference would be for Fairbanks. He doesn’t give up as many walks, his strikeout numbers are still there, and his elevated home run numbers looked to be a blip on the radar.

There’s always room for improvement in the Blue Jays’ bullpen, and locking in Fairbanks would take their gang of relievers to the next level in 2026.