Toronto Blue Jays have used 13 different starting pitchers in 2025

What happened

The Toronto Blue Jays have used 13 different starting pitchers in 2025, per Jon Morosi on X. Morosi offered the number as context while discussing the club's trade deadline activity, framing it as the backdrop against which Toronto's recent acquisitions should be understood. Thirteen is not a rotation. Thirteen is a rotation plus a waiting room.

Why it matters

The figure speaks to a level of attrition that goes well beyond the ordinary shuffle of a long season. Every team cycles through a starter or two by August — a hamstring here, a blister there, the occasional "we're just going to give him a few weeks." Thirteen suggests something more systemic: a starting staff that has been rebuilt, patched, and rebuilt again before the calendar turned to the second half.

Morosi's framing connects the number directly to the club's deadline decisions. Per his post, Toronto acquired two pitchers — José Soriano and Arrighetti — who he described as candidates to break camp in the Opening Day rotation next season, joining Dylan Cease, Yesavage, Ponce, and Miles as part of a projected group. The implication, per Morosi, is that the deadline was at least partly an investment in 2026 rotation depth rather than a pure win-now move. Whether that reading holds remains unconfirmed, but the 13-starter figure gives it structural logic: when you've burned through that many arms in a single season, you don't just patch the hole — you rebuild the wall.

It is worth noting what the number does not tell us. It does not specify how many of those 13 starters were driven by injury, how many were tactical, or how many were simply the product of a roster in flux. Morosi attributed the instability to injury attrition, but the precise breakdown has not been detailed in the available reporting.

The numbers

The Blue Jays carry a 79-83 record, sitting 5th in the AL East, 19 games back in the division. They are eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, ranking 6th in the Wild Card standings at 5.0 relative to the cut line. They enter Thursday's game at Wrigley Field on a one-game winning streak — which, given the broader context, qualifies as a momentum data point if not exactly a turning of the tide.

The rotation picture for the immediate schedule is itself a small illustration of the season's larger story. Dylan Cease is lined up to start Thursday against the Cubs, with David Peterson opposing. José Soriano — one of the two deadline acquisitions Morosi cited as future rotation candidates — is slated to start Friday against the Phillies, with Zack Wheeler on the other side. Saturday brings Max Scherzer against Aaron Nola in Philadelphia.

That three-game stretch features three different Blue Jays starters against three different opponents, which is entirely normal — and also, in the context of a 13-starter season, a reminder that the rotation is at least currently functional enough to project a full series. Small mercies.

Where the club stands

At 79-83, Toronto is playing out the string in the AL East. The division race is closed; the Wild Card door is closed. What remains is a schedule, a young rotation getting innings, and a front office that — per Morosi's framing — appears to be treating the final weeks of 2025 as an extended audition for 2026.

The upcoming road trip to Chicago and Philadelphia is not without its own interest. Cease against Peterson at Wrigley, Soriano against Wheeler at Citizens Bank, Scherzer against Nola in the Saturday follow-up — these are not meaningless games for the pitchers involved, even if the standings have rendered them low-stakes for the club's postseason math. Soriano in particular, as one of the deadline acquisitions Morosi flagged as a potential 2026 rotation piece, will draw attention in his start against one of the better pitchers in the National League.

What we don't know yet

The 13-starter figure is reported, not officially detailed. The club has not, per available reporting, released a breakdown of how those 13 arms were deployed — how many starts each made, which were injury-driven, which were planned. Morosi's post notes the number as context rather than as a formal accounting.

The composition of the projected 2026 rotation is also speculative at this stage. Morosi described Soriano, Arrighetti, Cease, Yesavage, Ponce, and Miles as candidates, but "candidates to break camp" is not a roster announcement — it is a reasonable projection based on current organizational depth, offered by a reporter with strong sourcing, not a club declaration. The offseason has not happened yet, and a 13-starter season is a useful reminder that projections have a way of meeting reality somewhere unexpected.

Whether the front office views the remainder of 2025 as a pure development window, or whether there are other moves still possible, has not been reported.

What to watch

The most immediate thing to watch is Soriano's Friday start in Philadelphia. As one of the two pitchers Morosi specifically named as a 2026 rotation candidate, his outing against Wheeler and the Phillies will be an early data point in what figures to be an extended evaluation period. It is one start, against a very good pitcher, in a ballpark that does not flatter pitchers — context worth keeping in mind before drawing conclusions.

More broadly, the 13-starter number sets a baseline for how the organization talks about its rotation this offseason. If the front office addresses the group aggressively — whether through free agency, trades, or internal development — the 2025 attrition figure will be the reference point. If the approach is more conservative, the same number will be the counterargument.

Cease, Yesavage, Ponce, and Miles round out the group Morosi identified as the core of a potential 2026 staff alongside the two deadline additions. How each of them finishes the season — in terms of health as much as performance — will shape what the Blue Jays actually have to work with when the calendar turns. After a season that required 13 different answers to the same question, the organization is presumably hoping to need fewer of them next time.