Blue Jays: What’s the trade market for Estrada like now?

With Marco Estrada on an expiring contract and the Blue Jays all but out of the race, it’s expected that the front office will look to shop him prior to the trade deadline. With the Kansas City Royals making a trade for pitching on Monday, after being the rumoured trade partner for the change-up artist, where else could he land?

While Marco Estrada continues to struggle on the mound, there will always be a great need for pitching the MLB, especially in the Wild Card era. With someone like Estrada, there is enough of a recent track record to believe that a change of scenery could net you a borderline ace, even if he’s looked like a minor leaguer since the calendar flipped to June. (Sorry Marco..)

He’s had ERA’s of 3.13 and 3.48 in 2015, and 2016, and looked to be off to the same type of season in April and May. Since then however, his season has fallen apart along with his struggling teammates, with a 9.11 ERA in June, followed by a mark of 10.38 in July across nine starts combined.

The reality for a pitcher with Estrada’s skill set, is that they have to locate in order to find success. The Mexican born hurler has one of the best changeups in baseball (when he’s right), but his fastball barely touches 90 miles per hour. His ability to really “pitch” has given him a great deal of success, but when he’s not hitting his spots then things unravel pretty quickly, as we’ve seen far too frequently of late.

With all of that said, he appears to be healthy and is young enough at 34 to dismiss complete regression, especially with the way he started the season. For contenders looking for a relatively cheap gamble on a rotation boost, he could be a worthwhile roll of the dice.

In a piece much like yesterday’s about Jose Bautista, this is my own speculation based on a few rumours and what makes sense for other team’s rotational needs. Let’s have a look.