Toronto Blue Jays interested in former Tampa Bay Rays closer

With Ryan Helsley off the market, Pete Fairbanks might be the next closer to sign.

The Blue Jays are among the teams interested in him, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal.

The Blue Jays, who are in agreement with free-agent right-hander Dylan Cease on a seven-year contract, continue to pursue late-inning relievers, and were in the mix for three who already signed Helsley, Raisel Iglesias and Phil Maton.

Fairbanks, as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, faced the AL East rival Blue Jays often.

In 27 career innings against them, he held Toronto hitters to a .130 batting average and .468 OPS.

In his third season as the Rays' full-time closer, Fairbanks finished with a 2.83 ERA over 60 innings and posted a career-high 27 saves.

Over the past three years, Fairbanks has taken a step back from striking out a third of his opponents and instead punched out 27.9% against a 9.0% walk rate.

That's fallen even further when looking at the last two years, when his strikeout rate has fallen to 24.0% as his average fastball velocity has dipped from its 99 mph peak to just 97.3 this year.

That's still premium velocity, of course, but the dip in velocity and declining strikeout rate headed into Fairbanks's age-32 season leave some questions in his profile that weren't present even two years ago.

All those red flags led the Rays to decline their $11MM team option on Fairbanks's services for the 2026 season, though it's fair to expect that a team with a larger budget might have happily picked up that option given the relatively low price tag on a one-year commitment.

As the markets develop for Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams and Robert Suarez, Fairbanks looms as a viable under-the-radar alternative.

Helsley agreed Saturday to a two-year, $28 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles, pending a physical. A similar deal is believed to be in range for Fairbanks.