I have the inserts of my Tascam 688 wired into my patchbay, however, I have both the send and return going to the same jack to save on patchbay usage.

However, as expected, having the insert cables plugged in routes audio to the patchbay and since it isn't connected I get no input.

What I'm doing now is keeping the cables unplugged, but I'd like to get some short profile TRS plugs that have the tip and ring shorted and keep them plugged in until I need to do a insert effect.

I've searched for shorted, normalized, dummy plug etc, and nothing has turned up other than ones I can solder myself (which I'm not against, but would rather have something made for the purpose, and ideally not protruding too far.)

Not sure what kind of patch bay you have and there is most certainly no room for this but maybe you could make use of a switched 1/4” jack??