TORONTO — With the trade deadline looming and the Toronto Blue Jays out of contention, a select group of players on the team will soak up plenty of attention in the days to come.
By all indications the Blue Jays intend to move players on expiring contracts, such as Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi Garcia, Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier, Danny Jansen, and Trevor Richards. A market may not develop for all of those players, but the Blue Jays gain little by keeping them.
Other players who carry term could be in play, but for now the likelihood of them moving on is far lower than the guys listed above.
While it’s understandable that the spotlight will be on the players who could be headed out of town, what will matter more to the Blue Jays and their fanbase in the end is who comes back.
The reason that isn’t where the attention has gone is that it’s borderline impossible to predict who that will be. It’s not yet 100 per cent clear who might be buying from the Blue Jays, and even if there was certainty on that count every contending team has dozens of prospects and younger players who could be considered trade candidates.
It’s not impossible to throw together a hypothetical trade, but the odds of it being even close to what happens are awfully long.
So, instead of a vain attempt to single out trade targets for the Blue Jays, it makes more sense to examine the holes in the team’s farm system and highlight the type of players it would be logical — and feasible — for Toronto to add:
Catcher
For most of the last half decade, the catching position has been a place where the Blue Jays have had enviable depth and youth.
Alejandro Kirk debuted as a 20-year-old, progressively got better defensively and earned an All-Star Game appearance in 2022. Danny Jansen evolved his approach at the dish while maintaining a sturdy defensive reputation throughout his mid-to-late 20s, and Gabriel Moreno even emerged as arguably baseball’s top prospect for a time.
A couple of years ago, the Blue Jays seemed like they might be set for the foreseeable future behind the dish.
Now, Jansen is about to hit free agency and Kirk has regressed with the bat and Moreno was shipped to Arizona. Despite his offensive struggles, Kirk still projects as the team’s starter in 2025 — and remains under team control through 2026 — but the Blue Jays don’t have a succession plan, or even an internal option who projects to be a backup in the near future.
Toronto doesn’t have a catching prospect under 26 at either double-A or triple-A, and when FanGraphs put together its list of the team’s top 31 prospects before the 2024 season, not a single backstop made the list.
Based on the trade chips the Blue Jays are likely to move, a true catcher-of-the-future candidate is probably out of reach, but the team might be able to import a low-ceiling, high-floor type close to the majors, or add an intriguing lottery ticket to a position group that is barren at the moment.
Outfield
The Blue Jays have graduated a number of position players in 2024, but none of them project to spend most of their time roaming the outfield.
Addison Barger or Davis Schneider could conceivably wind up as long-term corner outfielders, but Barger has not inspired faith in his MLB cameos and Schneider will have to hit significantly more than he has in 2024 to be a good Plan A in left field.
With Kevin Kiermaier on an expiring contract, Springer approaching his 35th birthday and Daulton Varsho under team control for just two years beyond 2024, this position group needs an influx of talent.
Entering the season, the team’s highest-ranked outfield prospect was arguably Alan Roden, but the 24-year-old’s numbers took a slight dip from his stellar 2023 in his second look at the double-A level before a promotion to triple-A in mid-June led to a rough first impression with the Bisons (.595 OPS in 98 plate appearances).
The Blue Jays may feel like the cohort of Spencer Horwitz, Orelvis Martínez, Leo Jiménez and Barger might produce an infield starter, or even two, but they can’t have that kind of confidence about the farm system’s outfield crop.
Starting Depth
Good young starters are difficult to pry away from other teams in trades, but the Blue Jays might be able to get a near MLB-ready arm or two with some upside.
The team’s inability to develop starters, and most teams’ reluctance to part with optionable rotation candidates, has left Toronto with meagre starting depth in recent seasons. The relative durability of Toronto’s veteran rotation, aside from Alek Manoah, has usually prevented disaster for the club, but it is undeniably low on viable starters at triple-A.
Ricky Tiedemann has been unable to stay healthy, Chad Dallas is having a rough go at Buffalo (6.34 ERA) and even some of the higher-ceiling arms further from the majors, such as Brandon Barriera and Landen Maroudis, have seen injuries halt their progress.
While getting surefire future starters might not be attainable, the Blue Jays can take inspiration from the Jordan Hicks deal they made last season that saw them part with right-handers Sem Robberse and Adam Kloffenstein.
Neither pitcher is a lock to make an impact at the MLB level, but they would be two of the first guys up if the St. Louis Cardinals’ rotation had a few injuries — and they are the type of arms that would be valuable to the Blue Jays right about now, particularly given the likelihood that a Yusei Kikuchi trade opens up a rotation spot.
Left-handed Relief Arms
Even in a post-LOOGY time, the role of southpaw relievers remains important, and the rapid decline of Tim Mayza has left the Blue Jays without many capable lefties.
Génesis Cabrera has posted solid results in 2024, but his strikeout rate is suspiciously low (6.69 K/9) and his suspect peripherals mean that he’s been below replacement level by FanGraphs’ reckoning (-0.1 fWAR). Even if he’s able to keep runs off the board, the 27-year-old is eligible for free agency following 2025.
The other lefty in the Blue Jays pen — Brendon Little — has been relatively effective this year but he’s also a 27-year-old waiver claim who brought 0.2 innings of MLB experience into 2024.
Beyond those two, the only left-handed reliever on the 40-man roster is Brandon Eisert, who is a dart throw and whose ERA has gotten worse in each of the last three seasons he’s spent at triple-A.
Left-handed relievers are always available in free agency, and the team doesn’t necessarily need a long-term plan here — but it would be helpful to have a few more southpaws in the pipeline. If nothing else, being able to develop a capable lefty would be a cost-saving measure allowing the club to allocate resources to more critical positions in the future.
