The Blue Jays have added another piece to their bullpen for 2017, signing right-handed reliever Joe Smith to a one-year Major League deal, according to MLB Network insider Ken Rosenthal.
The club has not confirmed the deal, which is worth $3 million with $500,000 in performance bonuses, according to a report by Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Toronto will need to make a corresponding move in order to accommodate Smith on its 40-man roster.
The Blue Jays shored up a major hole on their roster when they signed left-handed reliever J.P. Howell to a one-year deal Wednesday, and their bullpen could become even stronger with the addition of Smith. The soon-to-be 33-year-old has been an innings-eater over the last six seasons; his 413 appearances are the fifth most in baseball since the beginning of the 2011 season.
Smith is coming off a down 2016 season marked by oblique and hamstring injuries -- a year he began with the Angels before being traded to the Cubs in August in exchange for Minor Leaguer Jesus Castillo. The sidearmer did not make any postseason appearances for Chicago during its run to the World Series title.
Smith finished the year with a 3.46 ERA, 6.9 strikeouts per nine innings and a 50.3 percent ground-ball rate, a shade off his career marks of a 2.93 ERA, 7.5 K/9 rate and 56.2 percent ground-ball percentage.