This story is excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to receive it regularly in your inbox.
Welcome to the madness of the trade deadline.
This is the time when winning teams go all-in, losing teams load up for next season and blue ticks matter.
Blue jays are buyers, plain and simple. Aside from the obvious possibility in 2022, the Blue Jays have a multi-year window thanks to the overlap between their young core and their recent big-name additions. This opportunity is rare, so this is the time for the Blue Jays to act boldly.
Pitching remains the Blue Jays’ biggest need, starting with bullpen arms in the back end and potentially a depth starter to shore up the back end of the rotation. There is room to diversify the position player pool, which could come in the form of bench depth, but a club with financial flexibility, a strong enough farm system and motivation to move could go either way.
Here are five questions for the Blue Jays before the deadline on Tuesday, Aug. 2:
When will the magic happen? Last season, the Blue Jays got out of their bullpen woes by trading for Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards a month early. This summer is clearly not the case.
GM Ross Atkins says: “Every year it seems with a week to go the prices feel very high. Things are heading towards the deadline. There seems to be a better understanding on both sides of where those thresholds are, where people will make a decision. Right now, to go fast, you’re probably going to pay a premium.”
Is there a way to improve the lineup? Entering Thursday’s game, the Blue Jays ranked third in MLB in runs scored (479) and OPS (.772). A starter is unlikely to be added, but there is room to give John Schneider a few more bench options.
Atkins says, “Our offense has really performed well most of the year. We started off slow, but we’re in a good position right now. When you look at the results side and how we can improve this, there are ways to do it, but it’s getting harder. Making incremental improvements even to our roster of position players is not the easiest thing to do.”
Where does the rotation rank among the Blue Jays’ priorities? It’s there, but with Alec Manoa and Kevin Gausman, and the club’s belief that Jose Berrios is returning to his old form, there’s no sense of panic.
Atkins says, “We always have to think of ways to provide depth. Could this be at the Major League level or Triple-A? Obviously, we’re also always thinking about how we can do that internally. I feel like we’re in a good starting point on that front, but that doesn’t mean we’re not open to acquiring a starter.”
What will the Blue Jays target in their bullpen? The Blue Jays have long seemed to lack the 100 mph arms you see pop up in other bullpens, but Atkins is quick to note that hitters have adjusted to the speed.
Atkins says, “It’s not just about power. The swing and miss is definitely effective. I think that would be the one area where if we could add more swing and miss that would be a positive. Right or left hand will really depend on the other things we do.
How do internal bullpen candidates affect those plans? Yosver Zulueta, Nate Pearson, Julian Merriweather, Adrian Hernandez and others could be part of the solution, of course, but the Blue Jays can’t wait and hope one of them can be the savior.
Atkins says, “There are some other guys in our system that we’re thinking about as potential options. I’d rather not name them and increase the pressure on certain individuals, but we feel pretty good about some depth options we have in our system. We think about how we can support them, how we can put them in the best possible position to provide depth for us.”
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