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New Blue Jays signing Jesse Hahn throws a pitch.
With pitchers and catchers already reported and their full squad due in Dunedin, Florida, on Monday, the Toronto Blue Jays made a last-minute signing to bolster their bullpen depth, giving what will likely be one final chance to 36-year-old groundball specialist Jesse Hahn, who missed three complete seasons and has pitched for four MLB teams.
The Blue Jays announced they signed Hahn to a minor league free agent contract on Saturday via their official transactions page.
The contract comes with an invitation to Toronto’s major league spring training, and at least gives Hahn — a sixth-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010 — a shot at returning to the big leagues after sitting out three full seasons thanks to a shoulder injury.
The right-handed Hahn, after pitching in 29 games over three seasons with the Kansas City Royals — who used him as a high-leverage reliever — went on the 10-day injured list in April 2021 with what was described as shoulder impingement syndrome.
But that 10-day stint turned into three years. Hahn underwent surgery to repair the shoulder, and after being signed and released by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2024, caught on with the Seattle Mariners last season — finally making his return to a major league mound on April 5.
Hahn Never Got Real Chance in Seattle
Hahn looked good in his comeback, holding the San Francisco Giants scoreless over two innings. But after just one more relief outing, the Mariners sent him to Triple-A Tacoma. Other than one brief call-up for a single appearance in May, in which he allowed three runs on three hits in just one inning, Hahn spent the remainder of last season in the minors.
He elected free agency on Nov. 6.
With a bullpen anchored by Jeff Hoffman, and setup men Tyler Rogers and Louis Varland, Hahn seems unlikely to crack Toronto’s Opening Day roster, but at least the spring training invite will allow him a showcase for Blue Jays manager John Schneider and general manager Ross Atkins to see what they have in the eight-year veteran.
New Blue Jay Pitcher Brings High Groundball Rate
Hahn could fill a highly specialized role out of the Blue Jays bullpen, however. With a 62 percent groundball rate last season at Tacoma, the veteran righty could prove useful in situations when Schneider decides he needs a pitcher to deliver a double-play ball.
In the majors last season, pitchers allowed an overall 42 percent groundball rate, according to FanGraphs.
If Hahn can translate his propensity to get batters to hit the ball on the ground to the major leagues, he could fill a real need for the Blue Jays. In 2025, Toronto pitchers recorded the fifth-lowest groundball rate in MLB at 39.5 percent, per FanGraphs.
Not surprisingly, then, the Blue Jays were also near the bottom, 24th, in ratio of groundouts to fly-ball outs, recording just 0.81 ground-ball outs for every out on a ball hit in the air.
At the same time, Blue Jays pitchers were susceptible to the long ball when giving up fly balls. They suffered the seventh-highest rate of fly balls hit for home runs at 12.8 percent.
If Hahn can show that he still has his exceptional ability to keep the ball on the ground, he could fill a niche in the Blue Jays bullpen after all.
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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