Blue Jays Morning Brew: Trade Rumors, Top Prospects and Mark Buehrle

Two days in a row with a morning brew? I’m as surprised as you are. Here are your latest Toronto Blue Jays news and rumours.

According to Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun, the Toronto Blue Jays could have acquired Chase Headley from the San Diego Padres for what sounds like a very minimal cost.

“San Diego was willing to pay all of the remaining money owed to move him to Toronto,” said an executive familiar with the trade talks.The Jays would have had to give up third baseman Juan Francisco and two lower-level minor leaguers, “not big-time prospects,” for Headley.

Ken Fidlin, also of the Sun, follows up that the Blue Jays should have jumped at the chance to get Headley.

The deal almost seems too good to be true – the Padres were willing to pay ALL of Headley’s salary and only wanted Francisco and a couple of low levels prospects in return? There has to be some sort of a catch. I wonder what the definition of “not big-time prospects” is in the mind of Elliott’s sources? It’s not like the New York Yankees had to give up much of anything to get Headley, so maybe there was in fact a deal on the table for the Jays? Regardless, it’s nothing but could have, would have, should have at this point.

More trade rumors as Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports says that the Blue Jays interest in Alex Rios was “fleeting” and instead the team is “monitoring the market” and that Asdrubal Cabrera “could be an option”. As Dan Toman of theScore.com writes, it’s not clear whether Rosenthal’s connection to Cabrera is based on actual interest or his own speculation.

MLB.com updated their Blue Jays top 20 prospects list and named Daniel Norris as the club’s top prospect, ahead of Aaron Sanchez who has graduated to the majors. It’s a bold move in my opinion (I still had Sanchez as the Blue Jays top prospect in our most recent update) but Baseball America and Keith Law of ESPN (Insider subscription required) have already ranked Norris ahead of Sanchez in their midseason top 50’s so it’s also not that surprising. I’m still riding on team Sanchez but the gap has without a doubt narrowed between the two potential studs.

And closing things out this Monday morning, over at Beyond the Boxscore Ryan Romano looks at Mark Buehrle‘s Hall of Fame case – the value of durability.