Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man: Chad Green

Chad Green is a 31-year-old (32 in May) right-handed relief. And he’s also the last one of the current 40-man roster that we have to look at in this little exercise. This is good since I’m leaving on holiday tomorrow (it is roughly -30 here in Calgary, it will be close to +25 when we land in Sydney).

Chad signed one of the most complicated free-agent contracts you will ever see back at the end of January. As I understand it:

• Chad will get $2.25 million in 2023.
• After the season, the Jays can pick up a three-year option worth $9 million per season.
• If the Jays decline the option, Chad can take a player option of one year at $6.25 million.
• If he doesn't, the Jays can take a two-year option at $21 million. And some incentives could be added to this.

If you are a fan of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books, this is the contract for you (yes, that’s Dan Szymborski’s joke). An added cost of the deal was losing Matt Gage, who I liked.

Green had Tommy John surgery in May of last year. He won’t be ready to go at the start of the season but should be ready to pitch by mid-season, if not before. It’s likely he’ll start the season on the 60-day IL.

Green has pitched in the majors for the last seven seasons, all with the Yankees. In total, he’s pitched in 272 games, with 24 starts, 383.2 innings. He has a 3.17 ERA, and Batters hit .212/.265/.380 against him. As a reliever, batters hit .200/.250/.348 against him.

He is the rare reliever who will throw more than an inning an appearance. He likely won’t do that in 2023 since he’s coming back from Tommy John, but hopefully, he’ll return to doing that after this season.

Last year he only pitched in 14 games. In 2021 he appeared in 67 games, had a 10-7 record, and 18 holds. He struck out 31.4% of the batters he faced and walked 5.4%. In 26 of those 67 games, he pitched more than an inning.

In that season, he threw a four-seam fastball 65.5% of the time (averaging 95.7 MPH, last year, he averaged 94.7, but he was on his way to TJ) and a curveball 34.5% of the time.

Presuming Green can come back (well, even if he doesn’t), John Schneider will have more and better choices for the setup spots in front of Jordan Romano.

Chad will become the sixth Green or Greene to play for the Jays, but this is our first Green pitcher. If you can name all of the other 5 Greens, you are a better man than I.

Steamer figures him to pitch in 20 games this year with a 3.72 ERA. Predicting what a pitcher will do the season after Tommy John is hard. A year further down the road, we can guess that he should be about the same pitcher he was before the surgery (though 2 years older). And, of course, when we make the playoffs, Green should be at pretty close to full strength.