The Toronto Blue Jays have finally pulled the plug on Brendon Little.
After another disastrous outing on April 4 against the Chicago White Sox, where Little entered the game with the lead but gave up a double and two home runs, the Blue Jays have optioned him to Triple-A.
The Blue Jays announced the team has optioned Little and Lazaro Estrada to Triple-A. In a corresponding move, the team recalled Austin Voth and Joe Mantiply, while Cody Ponce and Anthony Santander have been transferred to the 60-day IL.
Little struggled in the second-half of 2025 and into the playoffs, and those struggles continued into the season. After pitching much better in spring training, the results didn’t translate to success in the regular season.
The left-hander appeared in 5 games, going 0-2 with a 24.55 ERA in 3.2 innings, as he allowed 11 runs and 10 earned.
With Little optioned, Mantiply will replace him as the second lefty out of the bullpen, alongside Mason Fluharty. The veteran signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays and re-signed with the team in March after spending the year in Triple-A.
Estrada, meanwhile, went 4 scoreless innings out of the bullpen and struck out three. But, after pitching so much, Toronto sent him down to get a fresh arm.
Blue Jays Had no Choice With Little
In the first half of 2025, Little was one of the best left-handed pitchers in all of baseball, but his struggles since then left the Blue Jays no choice.
Toronto has goals of returning to the World Series, and already this season, Little has blown two games that the Blue Jays should have won. So, after losing back-to-back series to the Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox, Toronto had to send Little down to try to figure his stuff out.
“We’ve got to figure it out,” Schneider said postgame on Saturday about Little. “We’re going to try to put the best team out there every single day, so we’ll definitely sit down and talk about it.”
After Little gave up two more home runs, the Blue Jays finally decided to option him. However, the positive news for Little is that Toronto didn’t DFA him, and instead is keeping him on the 40-man roster, as the hope is he can rediscover his form in Buffalo.
Little went 4-2 with a 3.03 ERA in 79 games last season, and in 2024 went 1-2 with a 3.79 ERA, showing he can be an effective MLB reliever.
Who Are Joe Mantiply & Austin Voth?
After using Lazaro Estrada for four innings on Saturday, the team recalled Mantiply and Voth to replace him and Little.
Mantiply is a 35-year-old veteran left-hander who made his MLB debut back in 2016. He was an All-Star in 2022 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. That season, he went 2-5 with a 2.85 ERA. For his MLB career, the lefty is 11-13 with a 4.54 ERA.
Mantiply is a four-pitch pitcher who throws a four-seam fastball, changeup, sinker, and curveball, yet he rarely throws his fastball. In 2025, he threw his fastball just 2.1% of the time, while throwing the curveball 35.9%. He also isn’t a hard-throwing reliever, as his fastball averaged just 88.2 MPH, while his sinker works as his fastball and also hovers around 88 MPH.
Voth, meanwhile, signed with the Blue Jays just before Opening Day on a minor-league deal. The 33-year-old right-hander spent last season with the Chiba Lotte Marines in the NPB. In his MLB career, Voth has appeared in 207 games, starting 39, going 17-19 with a 4.07 ERA. He last appeared in an MLB game in 2024 with the Seattle Mariners.
Voth is a four-pitch reliever who uses all four regularly. He has a four-seam fastball, a curveball, a sweeper, and a cutter. He used the cutter the most at 33.8% of the time, while he threw the curveball the least at 18.8% of the time, but still mixes in all four well, and tops out around 94 MPH.
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