Blue Jays Former All-Star Pitcher Urged to Betray Toronto For West Coast

The Toronto Blue Jays have already proved this offseason that they are serious about repeating as American League champs. But so far, their main upgrades have come in the pitching department. They signed the top free agent pitcher on the market in former San Diego Padres right-hander Dylan Cease, giving the 2024 Cy Young Award candidate a seven-year contract worth $210 million.

The Blue Jays have also added submarine-throwing reliever Tyler Rogers, former Korean league star Cody Ponce and they even — perhaps to their own surprise — retained two-time All-Star Shane Bieber, who invoked the $16 million player option in his contract rather than opt out and test free agency.

Those moves give the Blue Jays 12 players on contracts that will pay them at least $10 million per year over two or more seasons. The Blue Jays, according to FanGraphs tabulations, are heading into the 2026 season with the third-highest payroll in baseball at $272 million, trailing only the New York Mets ($294 million) and the Los Angeles Dodgers ($353 million).

And it’s only Christmas Day. The offseason still has nearly two months remaining. But there is one workhorse pitcher whom the Blue Jays are likely to lose unless they are able to make a quick decision about his immediate future — and one leading baseball expert urges the hurler to head west, to a National League team on the coast.

36-Year-Old Righty Remains a Free Agent

That pitcher is Chris Bassitt, a 2021 American League All-Star who in the three years since he signed as a free agent with the Blue Jays has been perhaps the Toronto staff’s most reliable starting pitcher.

The 11-year veteran may not have put up the gaudiest numbers, though he was more than solid in 2025 with a 3.96 ERA and an 11-9 win-loss record over 170⅓ innings. But Bassitt was always there when the team needed him, starting 31 games and even making a relief appearance and throwing a complete game, one of only two tossed by Toronto pitchers this year.

Over his previous two seasons in Toronto, Bassitt was just as dependable, making all 64 of his starts and giving the Jays an average of more than 5⅔ innings per start. That’s about one out more than the MLB average.

But Bassitt’s three-year, $63 million contract with the Blue Jays expired after the World Series wrapped up, and though the team has not ruled out a reunion with the 36-year-old, president and CEO Mark Shapiro has made no reported moves toward bringing Bassitt back.

Giants a Suggested Destination

If not Toronto, where would Bassitt fit best? According to FanSided’s veteran MLB analyst Christopher Kline, in a report published Wednesday, that place is the Bay Area.

“The San Francisco Giants entered the offseason as a popular sleeper pick to sign Tucker, Cody Bellinger, Tatsuya Imai and several of MLB’s top free agents. Those expectations were misplaced, though, as Buster Posey appears to be operating with his hands tied by ownership,” Kline wrote. “All the same, San Francisco could use a bit of rotation depth behind Logan Webb and Robbie Ray.”

That rotation depth, Kline stated, should come in the form of Bassitt.

“The man is a machine, reliant on off-speed and breaking stuff rather than pure velocity,” Kline continued. “That should, hopefully, allow Bassitt to age with a bit of grace. He can eat innings, at the very least, and that’s what the Giants need.”

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