Blue Jays: More trades could be coming before the Rule 5 draft

Having organizational depth is a great thing, but it also means that you can’t always protect all of your assets. For that reason, the Blue Jays could be active in the trade market over the next month.

The Blue Jays made the first of what could be several trades this winter on Saturday, as they moved Aledmys Diaz to the Houston Astros in exchange for Trent Thornton, a RHP starting pitcher.

The move happened for a couple reasons. As we’ve discussed here at Jays Journal, Diaz was expendable because of the plethora of depth the Blue Jays have in their middle infield, a “problem” they definitely didn’t have a year ago. However, the second reason is because Ross Atkins and the Jays front office need to do some work on the 40 man roster, especially in advance of the Rule 5 draft.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, once prospects reach a certain amount of minor league service time they either need to be added to the 40 man roster, or exposed to what’s called the Rule 5 draft. We watched the Blue Jays take advantage of the draft a few years ago when they nabbed Joe Biagini from the San Francisco Giants. Of course, Biagini was able to stay in Toronto because he remained on the 25 man active roster, a requirement of hanging on to any player’s taken in the draft. If they Blue Jays had tried to move Biagini back to Triple-A that year, the Giants could have taken him back.

More from Jays Journal

• Matt Chapman has been exactly what the Blue Jays needed
• Blue Jays: The goalposts are moving in the right direction
• Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays advance to the Championship Series
• Blue Jays: Comparisons for Alek Manoah’s Second Season
• Blue Jays: Adam Cimber, the unlikely decision King

After dealing Diaz the Blue Jays’ 40 man roster now sits at 36 players, which also means that things are already starting to get pretty tight. According to an interview with Sportnet’s Shi Davidi, Atkins is preparing himself for the possibility that he could lose an asset for nothing, and the organization is doing their best to evaluate their players and explore trade possibilities before they have to make any final decisions.

Davidi also points out that the Blue Jays are expected to add pitchers Hector Perez, Patrick Murphy and Yennsy Diaz to the 40 man, leaving just one available spot at the moment. It gets very complicated when you consider that each of Jordan Romano, Jon Harris, Forrest Wall, Jacob Waguespack, Corey Copping, Kevin Vicuna and Max Pentecost and more could be selected by another team in the draft.

None of the above listed players are top 10 organizational prospects or anything, but each has a chance to make a solid contribution at the big league level. Of course, we’ve also watched several players prove to be late bloomers in Toronto as well, so another fear is that you’re exposing someone to waivers that could be on the cusp of putting everything together.

It’s not an easy task. Atkins and company will have to decide which players they think they can sneak through the draft process, which ones they absolutely can’t expose (because they would be selected), and which ones they feel comfortable trading.

While you don’t always get the kind of return you’re hoping for in these cases (although Saturday’s trade was pretty decent), sometimes moving an asset you’re about to lose and getting something in return is better than letting them walk away for nothing. With that in mind, I would expect the Blue Jays to be busy before Christmas.