Blue Jays: Examining Myles Straw’s contract options this offseason

It was two winters ago when the Toronto Blue Jays acquired Myles Straw from the Cleveland Guardians. The Jays were in pursuit of Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki, and the club acquired Straw and international bonus pool money from Cleveland to assist with the endeavour.

When the dust settled, Straw was a Blue Jay, Sasaki signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Jays’ front office was left with a larger bonus pool and an outfielder they didn’t really need.

Straw’s career at that point was full of ebbs and flows. It’s no secret that he was a defensive first-type player, and the Guardians saw a flash of what he could do at the plate in 2021 (which is why they acquired him from the Astros that year), but he struggled to find that level of play over the years. The Guardians front office had bet on his 2021 stats following through, and inked him to a five-year deal worth $25 million early into the 2022 season with multiple options sewn into the back end.

Following the 2026 season, the Blue Jays are now heading into the option years for Straw’s contract.

As it currently stands, the club option for Straw is set at $8 million with a buyout worth $1.75 million. The Jays won’t be on the hook for the buyout, as the Guardians are paying that, should Toronto choose that route as part of the trade contingencies. This season, the Jays would be on the hook for the entire $8 million salary. In 2025, Cleveland covered $1 million of the deal, and $1.4 million last year.

Should the Jays pick up the club option, Straw has another club option worth $8.5 million with a $500K buyout following the 2027 season, which the Jays would be on the hook for as Cleveland’s obligations are no longer part of the equation.

So the question remains: do the Jays pick up the $8 million option?

The knee-jerk reaction from the fanbase likely gears more towards no, as the argument of ‘that $8 million could be used elsewhere’ enters the conversation pretty quickly.

While Straw is a hell of a teammate and is loved in the clubhouse, his role on the Jays was more on the bench side, and he played more when regular roster players got hurt, such as Daulton Varsho and Addison Barger. Across two seasons with the Jays, he appeared in 283 games with 562 at-bats, posting a .251/.308/.354 slash line and a .662 OPS. This included 33 doubles, two triples, and seven home runs with 58 RBIs.

Defensively, he posted a +20 DRS across all three outfield positions and last season, he amassed a +4 Outs Above Average (88th percentile) with a 97th percentile sprint speed as well. These stats line-up to the player profile established from the get-go.

Under the surface, Straw had a better 2025 campaign compared to 2026 (2.8 bWAR to a 0.3 bWAR), and FanGraphs echoed those WAR stats as well in their algorithm (1.8 vs. 0.7).

From a money standpoint, there is something to be said about being a specialized player (bench/defensive standpoint), but the money has to make sense. If you want to go more analytical, Ben Clemens at FanGraphs calculated that in 2026, teams were paying 0-1 $/WAR players at $6.74 million and 1-2 $/WAR players at $8.51 million. These values are actually lower than their respective averages dating back to 2020 ($7.37 million and $8.60 million, respectively).

With Straw, the Jays technically underpaid for his services in 2025 because he was making $6.4 million compared to the $8.95 million for 2025 for 1-2 $/WAR players and also underpaid last season with his $6 million salary for the 6.74 $/WAR evaluation for 0-1 players. The Jays also got some flexibility there with the Guardians kicking in some money to cover some salary each season as well.

So, while the reaction is that it may be an overpay, the math done by Clemens says that this may not be the case, given the dollar figure per fWAR.

Now, this is just one man’s theory and isn’t written in stone, considering team needs, CBT threshold considerations, roster manipulations, etc. It’s also worth noting that at the $8 million figure he is making in 2027, he would fall into the overpay category if he sits in the 0-1 fWAR mark again.

In a perfect world, especially with the uncertainty that is to come with the CBA negotiations, there is a silver lining in her if both sides want to dance (metaphorically). This obviously doesn’t work if the Jays want to move on, whether that’s to let an internal player take his spot or find someone externally, but let’s assume both player and team want to run it back.

The Jays buy out Straw at $1.75 million with Cleveland covering the entire balance, then re-sign the outfielder to a short-term deal with a $4-6 million AAV plus incentives. This puts some of the onus back on Straw to find that +1 fWAR value the Jays found in 2025, but also aligns back into the $/WAR valuation that Clemens was going on about in a less risky evaluation.

In theory, the argument of ‘but XX prospect could take his spot for millions less’  is a fair argument to be made. But if you bring in the extracurriculars of the teammate aspect, the defined role without hampering development (you know what you got), and his plus defence abilities, the proposed idea above does have some merit behind it.

There are a few different ways this could shake out, and overall, this contract isn’t going to break the bank for the Jays or hold them back from other things in the long run.

However, it’s a unique situation given the buyout being covered by the Guardians and the role Straw played on the team over the past two years, so while the outcome isn’t guaranteed, it will be interesting to see where the Jays pivot to in a winter that is already going to be messy.