Blue Jays: Big names that could get traded this offseason

Kevin Pillar

The 29-year-old is in his fourth full season with the Blue Jays and has become one of the fan favorites due to his amazing catches in center field. His bat is under average (career 86 OPS+) but his glove can really help out any team. He’s entering his second year of arbitration in which he’ll earn around $5 million so the Blue Jays might want to shop him considering the outfield depth the organization has. Randal Grichuk has played center field at a fine level while ‘Superman’ was on the disabled list in the month of July, and there is top prospect Anthony Alford who could also take over center field. Both are fine options to cover the position.

Kevin Pillar has been a valuable player since his first full season in the big leagues. In 2015 he ended the season with a 4.9 bWAR, followed by 3.5 in 2016, 2.8 in 2017 and 1.7 so far in 2018. Yes, it has gone down quite steadily but they’re still very solid numbers. His bat has underperformed, even though he has some hot stretches that makes us believe he has finally sorted it out at the plate, but his glove makes up for it and a center fielder that can catch pretty much anything in the outfield is appealing to a contender that’s looking to improve outfield defense drastically.

His value, however, will not be a lot higher than now. His speed will start to decrease as years go by, and the way the franchise is heading right now, it makes a lot more sense to give Anthony Alford a chance, than keeping a player who’s just going to earn more and see his value decrease. Handing him to any team isn’t what’s being suggested either, but the Blue Jays should definitely explore the market and listen on him as it makes a lot of sense to trade him.