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Chris Bassitt of the Toronto Blue Jays finished a $63 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays and is now drawing interest from an AL East rival.
In the immediate aftermath of the Toronto Blue Jays’ heartbreaking World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, one of their best pitchers in the series, 36-year-old Chris Bassitt, didn’t hold back in expressing his love for the team, calling the Jays “my favorite group I’ve ever played with.” That was quite a statement from a player who had just finished his 11th season.
Now, just three months later, Bassitt appears set to turn his back on Toronto and sign with another team. According to longtime MLB insider Jon Heyman, the free-agent right-hander is drawing interest from another American League team in the Blue Jays’ own division, the always highly competitive American League East.
Especially after their reported top free-agent target, former Houston Astros left-hander Framber Valdez signed a five-year, $125 million contract with the Detroit Tigers, the Baltimore Orioles are pursuing other free-agent pitchers, with Bassitt near the top of the list, according to Heyman, writing for the New York Post on Thursday.
“With Framber Valdez gone to the Tigers, Zac Gallen could top their list, followed by Lucas Giolito, Chris Bassitt and others,” Heyman wrote.
Bassitt a Top Mound Workhorse
The Orioles’ reported interest in Bassitt is certainly understandable. Even entering his age-37 season, coming off his three-year, $63 million Blue Jays contract, the right-hander from Toledo, Ohio, remains one of the game’s most durable arms. Bassitt has turned in at least 170 innings in each of his last four seasons, peaking in 2023 at an even 200 innings pitched.
On the Orioles’ staff, only 30-year-old Dean Kremer topped 170 innings last season, with 171 2/3, and has only reached that plateau twice in his six-year career.
The Orioles’ second-heaviest workload last season was borne by 36-year-old Tomoyuki Sugano, in his first MLB season after a 12-year career in Japan. But Sugano has not hit the 170-inning mark since 2018, when he threw 202 for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Central League.
Bassitt has delivered both quantity and quality, with a 3.77 ERA over those four seasons in which he totaled 723 innings.
Bassitt an ‘Undervalued’ Free Agent
According to analyst Travis Sawchik of MLB.com, with spring training now just days away, the fact that Bassitt remains without a team shows that he is being “undervalued” in the free-agent market.
“He is incredibly durable, having logged at least 150 innings in every season since 2021. He’s also the owner of one of the deepest arsenals in the game, allowing him to perhaps get by on guile and creativity, even as his stuff declines,” Sawchik wrote. “His curveball’s run value improved from -1 in 2024 to +5 compared to the league average. His full-season SIERA (3.92) was better than the league average and his best since 2022. It suggests he still has some fuel in the tank for 2026.”
Bassitt Delivered in the World Series
Bassitt is also a seasoned postseason performer, with a 3.04 ERA in 23 2/3 innings over 10 postseason games starting in 2020, when he pitched for the then-Oakland Athletics.
Despite being held out of the AL Division Series last year with a back injury, Bassitt returned to pitch out of the bullpen for the Blue Jays, throwing 8 2/3 innings over seven games and allowing just one earned run.
The postseason run also proved Bassitt’s adaptability. He turned in his lights-out bullpen performance despite coming in as a reliever just once in the previous six seasons.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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