Meet The New Guys: Tanner Roark

Tanner Roark is a 33 year old right handed starting pitcher. The Blue Jays acquired Roark through free agency, signing him to a two year deal worth $24 million total. He is expected to have been guaranteed a role in the rotation, and will likely start the year behind Ryu and Shoemaker, in the 3 spot. Roark; a former National, Athletic, and Red, showed success early in his career, but has since fallen off, and struggled to regain the form he once had. Roark spent his first six seasons in the Nationals rotation, and pitched to an ERA below 3.00 in half of those seasons. Unfortunately, Roark has struggled the last few years, leading the league in losses in 2018, along with a 4.34 ERA in 2018 being his lowest in the past 3 years. Roark has been struggling in limiting hits, and home runs pitching to a career high 9.8 H/9, and 1.5 HR/9 in 2019 with the Reds and Athletics. Roark must look to bring these down in order to find the success he once had, but it could be difficult being that Toronto is a hitters park, where home runs are a common thing.

Roark claims to have been drawn to Toronto for two main reasons. First, he is highly intrigued by the young core, and is interested in both teaching them, and learning from them. Secondly, Roark says he looked into Toronto’s young catching duo of McGuire and Jansen. Both catchers finished top 15 in the league in pitch framing in 2019, and Jansen finished as a gold glove finalist. That’s mainly what I was looking for this off-season, a catcher that I could be on the same page with and have a good relationship with,” Roark said. “Someone that can frame pitches is obviously an extra, and both of those guys did a really good job last year.”

With this signing, it seems likely the Blue Jays have confidence that Roark can return to his previous, more successful form. These numbers typically don’t get the kind of contract that Roark was able to get without some expectation/hope of better performance. Roark has proven that he is capable of being a great starter, but whether he will be able to do it again is the real question.