Spencer Miles went from Rule 5 long shot to legitimate rotation candidate in one season. The Blue Jays now have to decide whether to let him start full time in 2027.

It's a remarkable climb. Miles didn't throw a pitch in 2025 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, and Toronto took him from the Giants in the Rule 5 Draft anyway.

He'd thrown fewer than 15 innings in affiliated minor league ball. He entered spring training just trying to make the roster.

Then he did a bit of everything. Miles worked as a traditional starter, an opener and a reliever, finishing with a 2.73 ERA over 49 appearances.

Eight of those were starts. His 1.5 fWAR ranked second among Toronto relievers, behind only Louis Varland.

So where does he belong? The rotation needs him more than the bullpen does.

Toronto's rotation questions open a door for Spencer Miles

Dylan Cease and Trey Yesavage are the only sure things. José Berrios and Bowden Francis are coming back from Tommy John surgery, and Cody Ponce is still rehabbing his knee.

Shane Bieber and Max Scherzer are both free agents. That's a lot of uncertainty behind the top two.

He's also inexpensive. A cheap arm who can handle a starter's workload is the most valuable kind of depth there is.

The concerns are real. Starting means more innings, facing lineups multiple times and staying healthy, all things his surgery history makes harder to predict.

Give him the ball every fifth day in spring and let him prove it. The bullpen can replace his innings with a free-agent signing, but the rotation can't easily replace a starter who might already be in the building.

He's the walk-on who earned a scholarship midseason. You don't send him back to the bench just because that's where he started.

Ross Atkins has called his role a difficult decision. That's fair, but the roster is making the decision easier by the week.

If Miles holds up through camp, Toronto finds a starter for almost nothing. If he doesn't, the Jays still have one of their most reliable relievers, and that's a pretty good worst-case scenario.