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Why Blue Jays' fan favorite lefty reliever might be integral to postseason pursuit
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- Why Blue Jays' fan favorite lefty reliever might be integral to postseason pursuit
Why Blue Jays' fan favorite lefty reliever might be integral to postseason pursuit originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
The Toronto Blue Jays are fighting for their postseason lives as September rolls along. After a rough first half of the season, they've managed to fight their way back into contention.
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Entering play on Tuesday, September 8, the Blue Jays are 1.0 game back of the Cleveland Guardians for the third and final Wild Card spot. It's close, but they're going to need some help to get over the hump.
Andy McCullough of The Athletic believes that rookie left-handed pitcher, currently acting out of the bullpen in Ricky Tiedemann, could have a huge impact on their postseason hunt this season.
Blue Jays' Ricky Tiedemann can have huge impact on postseason push
"Working as a reliever this year, he made a big-league debut for a one-outing cameo in August," McCullough writes. "He can help the Jays' bullpen piece together innings as they claw back into the wild-card race."
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Tiedemann missed all of the 2025 season due to mid-season Tommy John surgery during the summer of 2024. But he's back, albeit not as a starting pitcher.
But for the Blue Jays' purposes in the Major Leagues, that doesn't matter a whole lot. In fact, it might work out better to use him as a reliever.
The fan favorite 24-year-old lefty has been pitching well for the Blue Jays this season, posting a 2.08 ERA in his three outings this season.
MORE: Blue Jays get realistic prediction to sneak into MLB postseason
Across 4.1 innings of work, he's allowed one run to score while walking four batters, hitting one, allowing three hits, and striking out four batters.
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He has been used just twice since being called up in September amid the expanded rosters. But as the season further winds down, Toronto might need him to be a much bigger part of the team.
Not only can Tiedemann get his MLB career off to a good start as the 2026 season winds down, but he could prove very useful in high-leverage situations out of the bullpen.
While his future might be in the rotation, having experience as a reliever can't hurt, especially for someone who missed so much time in the last two years or so.
