{"id":560793,"date":"2026-02-08T06:20:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/560793\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T06:20:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:20:29","slug":"blue-jays-announce-free-agent-signing-ahead-of-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/560793\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Announce Free Agent Signing Ahead of 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> are heading into the 2026 Major League Baseball<\/a> season as one of the top teams in baseball. They are coming off a heartbreaking end to last year. They took home the American League pennant to reach the World Series for the first time since 1993, but fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> in seven games.<\/p>\n

This offseason, general manager Ross Atkins has been active in reloading Toronto’s roster to make another deep postseason run in 2026.<\/p>\n

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The Blue Jays signed starting right-hander Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million contract<\/a>, Japanese third baseman<\/a> Kazuma Okamoto to a four-year, $60 million deal<\/a> and starting pitcher Cody Ponce to a three-year deal<\/a> worth $30 million among others.<\/p>\n

\"Toronto<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider.\u00a9 John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(\u00a9 John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Despite making high-profile additions, the Blue Jays missed on some of their top offseason targets. Toronto was making headway with one of the biggest names on the market, outfielder Kyle Tucker<\/a>, but he signed with the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers.<\/p>\n

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Toronto also lost two key players from last year. Shortstop Bo Bichette<\/a> signed with the New York Mets<\/a>, and relief pitcher Seranthony Dominguez signed with the Chicago White Sox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Blue Jays announced another signing. They reached a minor-league deal with left-handed pitcher Josh Fleming. This included an invite to spring training.<\/p>\n

Fleming was taken in the fifth round of the 2017 MLB<\/a> Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>. He has spent parts of five seasons in the majors though his last appearance in the majors was 2024, when he played for Pittsburgh. That season he made 25 appearances with three starts. He pitched to a 4.02 ERA in 31 1\/3 innings, striking out 17 batters with 14 walks. Fleming spent the 2025 season in the minor leagues with the Seattle Mariners<\/a> organization.<\/p>\n

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While Fleming may not make the opening-day roster for the Blue Jays, he is a good, experienced lefty to have available if needed for Toronto’s bullpen.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays begin spring training games in the Grapefruit League on Feb. 21 against the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Blue Jays Announce Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Promotion for 2026 Season<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Feb 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays are heading into the 2026 Major League Baseball season as one of the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,88,49,54086,76,59036,3685,29,57,19,4,61,25,776,65,2539,68,1414,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-560793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-bo-bichette","12":"tag-chicago-white-sox","13":"tag-cody-ponce","14":"tag-dylan-cease","15":"tag-josh-fleming","16":"tag-kazuma-okamoto","17":"tag-kyle-tucker","18":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","19":"tag-major-league-baseball","20":"tag-mlb","21":"tag-new-york-mets","22":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","23":"tag-pittsburgh","24":"tag-seattle-mariners","25":"tag-seranthony-dominguez","26":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","27":"tag-the-blue-jays","28":"tag-toronto","29":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","30":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116033567908589591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}