Blue Jays: If they trade him, where could Estrada go?

Hang tight- Keep him in Toronto

The Blue Jays may decide that their playoff hopes are still feasible, even if they have a pile of teams to leapfrog in the Wild Card standings. Or maybe they decide they’d like to keep Estrada in house, and evaluate him first hand before re-signing him in the offseason. He’s had a rocky year to be sure, but outside of a two month stretch in June and July, he’s been an excellent starter since early in 2015. They may also decide they need to keep him around, if for no other reason than the team needs a few starters they can rely on.

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Whether or not that warrants the Blue Jays bringing him back is another question, though it sounds like there is interest from both parties about keeping the 34 year old in Toronto. There’s no doubt his stock has taken a big hit, but that may play into the Blue Jays’ chances of retaining him anyway.

Next year the club will return the trio of Marcus Stroman, J.A. Happ, and hopefully a healthy Aaron Sanchez to their rotation, so they could certainly use a productive Estrada if they have designs on contending in 2018. It’ll come down to cost of course, and his performance over the remainder of the season will go a long way toward determining that number.

On one hand, if he continues throwing seven innings of shutout baseball, his price will go back up substantially and could make it more difficult for the Jays to lock him up. On the other, if he shows more signs of regression then they may not want him back anyway, so it’ll be an interesting development to follow. The Blue Jays will obviously hope he can continue to pitch the way he has over his last four starts, as he’s been in All-Star form.

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One way or another the Blue Jays are finding ways to keep things interesting despite their current occupation in the basement of the AL East. And whether they decide to rekindle trade talks with anyone about Estrada or not, it’s great to see him throwing well again.