TORONTO – The trade of Nate Pearson to the Chicago Cubs and Ricky Tiedemann’s looming Tommy John surgery were two separate and distinct events Saturday, connected only when viewed within the context of a deeply troubling Toronto Blue Jays whole.
That Pearson, once a consensus top-10 prospect in the game, returned only two low-tier double-A prospects Saturday, is a gutting outcome for the club, which had projected him as a future front-line starter, but couldn’t even turn him into a serviceable reliever. As his star faded, Tiedemann’s rose thanks to similar upside, but he’s thrown only 79.1 innings over the past year and a half and will effectively be a non-factor in the majors until 2026, at least.
And so, two arms expected to be part of a productive Blue Jays present, and pillars into the future, are out of the picture, the former permanently, the latter for an extended period, two needed replenishments for the core disappearing into the ether.
As a result, you get the type of subtraction deal that followed later in the day, when the Blue Jays sent Danny Jansen, their beloved catcher and longest-serving player, to the Boston Red Sox for two infield prospects, Cutter Coffey and Eddinson Paulino, and teenage right-hander Gilberto Batista.
It was their second such pending-free-agent sell-off of the weekend, following the trade of Yimi Garcia to Seattle for outfielder Jonatan Clase and catcher Jacob Sharp on Friday, with still more to come headlined by Yusei Kikuchi.
Few will hit with quite the intensity of Jansen’s departure given the way he grew up in the organization, emerged during the post 2015-16 rebuild and helped backstop the club through three wild-card appearances in the past four years.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Jansen “is like my third son,” and there were people across the organization waiting to say goodbye once the news broke. “Because of the time that he’s been here and just his overall personality, he can bridge the gap between basically everybody,” Schneider added.
But when off-season discussions about an extension didn’t result in a deal, a trade was going to be an option if the Blue Jays season played out as it has. And though Jansen repeated, as he often has, how he wanted to “control what I can control,” he added, “Was it in my mind? A little bit, of course, from the start of the year, going into a free-agent year, but I was focused on winning each ballgame and just seeing where we went.”
Where they went is to this sell-off and with Schneider saying, “We’re going to try to win next year,” the setbacks with Pearson and Tiedemann are more glaring, especially because they aren’t isolated.
This season alone, supplemental parts like Cavan Biggio and Tim Mayza were designated for assignment while two-time all-star closer Jordan Romano underwent elbow surgery and, platforming off a $7.75 million salary into his final year of arbitration, is a non-tender candidate. Orelvis Martinez, the club’s top-hitting prospect, should be acclimating to the majors right now but is instead serving an 80-game suspension for a PED violation. The team paid Kevin Kiermaier $10.5 million for one season and despite his elite defensive value, he passed through waivers unclaimed earlier this month.
Tiedemann isn’t the only pitching prospect to blow out his elbow this season — both Brandon Barriera, the 2022 first-rounder, and Landen Maroudis, a fourth-rounder last year, underwent the hybrid ligament replacement with an internal brace procedure. Adam Macko hasn’t pitched since July 2 due to forearm soreness.
With Spencer Horwitz, Leo Jimenez, Addison Barger and Steward Berroa all up, the Blue Jays have already raided triple-A Buffalo’s best talent, meaning there’s little to no depth behind the players that are already here. The acquisition of Clase from Seattle in the Garcia deal helps a little, as does the trio of players from the Red Sox, particularly Coffey, a second-round pick in 2022 with 14 homers and a .784 OPS in 61 games in high-A Greenville.
But overall, this hasn’t been a great season for the farm system.
All of this further undermines the foundation the Blue Jays sit upon and help explain why it’s collapsing. In the last 10 years, only one of the club’s first-round picks — Alek Manoah, who is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery — has a positive bWAR, so there’s been no renewing a core that is timing out contractually, no depth to fill in when injuries arise and no depth to deal from to help plug holes.
It’s why the Blue Jays are 48-56 even after Saturday’s heartening 7-3 win over the Texas Rangers, behind Kevin Gausman’s second complete-game of the season.
The ace right-hander, who’s struggled to find consistency this season, sat 95.1 with his fastball and planned it well with his splitter to allow three runs on four hits and three hits with eight strikeouts.
Daulton Varsho hit a three-run homer in the first when Ernie Clement added an RBI single, Alejandro Kirk singled home another run in the fifth to make it 5-3, Berroa doubled for his first career hit and scored on Horwitz’s sacrifice fly in the sixth while Varsho added another sacrifice fly in the eighth before a crowd of 35,917.
Still, even in what’s been a fun weekend on the field – a walk-off win Friday followed by Saturday’s gem from Gausman, the first Blue Jays pitcher to throw two complete games in a season since Marcus Stroman in 2017 – the bigger picture looms over all.
“To be honest, this time of year it kind of stinks if you’re not in it,” said Gausman. “If you’re not picking up guys for the run, then you’re probably going to lose guys. That’s where we’re at. We’re losing friends. My daughters are losing friends, we have a lot of kids on the team. That stinks. But it’s part of the game and part of the business. I understand all the moves that need to be made. But it’s still sad seeing somebody leave.”
As is what’s happened to a Blue Jays team that had been sitting on such a promising window, only to see it eroded to the point it’s come undone so thoroughly this season.
