BALTIMORE — The Toronto Blue Jays were not pleased to be in the position of seller at the deadline, an unfortunate by-product of their once-hopeful season gone wrong. But when a favourable sellers’ market developed, the club leaned into their unfavourable predicament, trying to make the best of a bad situation.
In all, the Blue Jays traded eight players and received 14 in return, including a handful who have reached or are near the MLB level. The hope is the player capital collected after five days of dealing will help Toronto expedite a retool so they can compete again in 2025 and beyond.
“Obviously did not want to be at this point where we are trading players away, it’s a disappointing time in my career and where we are as an organization,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said about an hour after the 6 p.m. ET deadline passed. “But we switched to getting better and switched to focusing on reshaping the group that is here — an already very talented group that we want to build around.”
Given expectations for the team, it’s not exactly satisfying to be celebrating prospect return. Atkins acknowledged that “it’s unacceptable that we are here, and I’m sorry to our fans for that”. But if there is a thin silver lining to Toronto’s failed pursuit of building a winning team in 2024, it’s that they were an unlikely seller among many desperate buyers willing to pay high prices to address needs. That meant the Blue Jays, stocked with several talented players, were among the most active teams and based on industry perception, faired well in their pursuit of strengthening their system’s depth.
The Blue Jays have received praise for the package of players they got in exchange for Yusei Kikuchi. (Dan Hamilton / USA Today)
In the days leading to Tuesday’s deadline, the Blue Jays traded starter Yusei Kikuchi to the Houston Astros, catcher Danny Jansen to the Boston Red Sox, designated hitter Justin Turner and reliever Yimi García to the Seattle Mariners and reliever Nate Pearson to the Chicago Cubs.
Then, Toronto capped off a busy deadline day by trading reliever Trevor Richards to the Minnesota Twins for utility player Jay Harry, Kevin Kiermaier to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher Ryan Yarbrough and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the Pittsburgh Pirates for third-base prospect Charles McAdoo.
The market for Kikuchi, who represented the club’s best rental trade candidate, was strong, according to Atkins, who said, “There was clear interest right from the start.” Ultimately, Houston offered the strongest package of players — right-hander Jake Bloss, outfielder Joey Loperfido and infielder Will Wagner, all three of whom are at or near the MLB level.
“We were aggressive and intentional in what we were looking to acquire, and the deal that was presented by Houston clearly crossed the line for us,” Atkins said.
The theme of the Blue Jays deadline was focused on moving players on expiring contracts. Of the eight players traded, only two — Pearson and Kiner-Falefa — had years of control remaining.
On the Kiner-Falefa deal, Atkins said the Blue Jays weren’t looking to move the infielder, who was nearing his return from the IL, but there “were several teams that approached us about him.” Among those teams were the Pirates, who were aggressive in their pursuit and offered a return of the “very dynamic, extremely physical” McAdoo that the Blue Jays couldn’t turn down.
“I was surprised that we crossed the line, because (Kiner-Falefa) has been incredible, will be incredible, and could have been a potential piece for us moving forward,” Atkins said.
Once a seller’s market developed, however, the Blue Jays didn’t consider moving more of their controllable players because, as Atkins said, “they’re a part of our solution” to competing next year and beyond.
Specifically on Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who drew considerable trade speculation, the GM said the club was “not close” on moving either.
“(It) was never our intention to try to trade either one of them and they are absolutely a part of things moving forward,” Atkins said.
Another result of the Blue Jays’ sell-off was the club shed enough salary to be “right on the razor’s edge” of the Competitive Balance Tax threshold. “Hopefully that will be something that we can navigate as a secondary benefit,” Atkins said.
With the trade deadline over, the Blue Jays will now look ahead.
One of their goals for the deadline was to acquire as many players as possible in the upper minor leagues to help return the club to contention.
Of the 14 players acquired, 10 have reached at least Double A or higher (that includes Yarbrough who was DFA’d by the Dodgers and will likely come to Toronto to eat innings as a member of their rotation down the stretch). Atkins said players at or near the MLB level “are the ones that are going to make the biggest impact sooner.”
“Fortunately, we also feel that those players have the highest upside,” the GM continued. “We’ve acquired players that are strong and physical and dynamic and have the chance to complement us very well.”
Among that MLB-ready group are Bloss and Loperfido, two-thirds of the return for Kikuchi.
Loperfido arrived in Baltimore to join the Blue Jays on Tuesday and he’s expected to receive regular playing time in the outfield for the remainder of the season. Bloss, who’s made three starts for the Astros this year, was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo. Atkins said Bloss has a chance to pitch for them this year, but after a busy season in which the 23-year-old has climbed three levels of the minor leagues to reach the majors, the club wants to give him “breathing room.”
“Our ideal outcome is that he’s helping us this year and growing and developing here in Toronto,” Atkins said. “We’re going to get to know him, make sure that he’s in the strongest possible spot.”
Loperfido, Bloss and young players already in the organization, like Spencer Horwitz, Leo Jiménez and Addison Barger, will have a chance to play regularly in the final two months as an extended try-out for 2025.
As much upside and depth as the Blue Jays believe they’ve collected that could help moving forward, the organization still has to confront what went wrong this year and how to fix it.
If the club wants to compete as soon as 2025, they’ll need to fill out their rotation, rebuild a bullpen that cratered this year and figure out, as Atkins put it, how to “create a better run-scoring environment.” While the club believes they have a head start on building out next year’s roster and depth with the players acquired over the past five days, to keep pace in the AL East, they’ll also need to add via free agency and trades in the offseason.
“We’ve just increased the likelihood of doing that by creating more depth and increased flexibility,” Atkins said. “The versatility, the dynamic athleticism that we required to complement the pieces that are here was a big part of our goal, and we feel that we’ve accomplished that.”
After the disappointment of 2024 rudely interrupted the club’s competitive era, the Blue Jays are hoping their work over the past five days will help revive it next season.
“Our goal was to do that as soon as possible, to retool this already talented group and ensure that in ’25 and ’26 and hopefully beyond that, that we’re competing and contending,” Atkins said.
(Top photo of Loperfido: Jonathan Dyer / USA Today)
