Toronto Blue Jays: We will survive without Andrelton Simmons

The Toronto Blue Jays were rumored to be in the mix for quite a few players prior to the trade deadline, with one of them being defensive wizard Andrelton Simmons.

With the expanded playoff format due to the season being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Toronto Blue Jays have a chance to make it to October baseball in 2020, a promised land that has evaded the organization since 2016. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are both struggling as of late, and the Toronto Blue Jays could qualify with the second division playoff spot (the Tampa Bay Rays are currently in first) or possibly as a wild card if they continue to win games in September.

This past Monday saw the trade deadline come and go, and the Toronto Blue Jays had quite a few hooks in the trade waters over the weekend. One of the more significant rumours was tied to Andrelton Simmons, a shortstop for the Los Angeles Angels who is well known for his glove and fielding ability.

Breaking into the league in 2012, the Curacao native has won four Gold Glove awards in his career and has slashed .268/.316/.379 while spending time in both the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels organizations over the past nine seasons. While his slash line and 67 career home runs might not be what Blue Jays fans are used to seeing, Simmons is an A+ defender who takes charge of the infield, creating highlight-reel catches and throws across the diamond year after year. Spending all nine years playing shortstop, Simmons owns an outstanding 192 defensive runs saved with a .982 fielding percentage, which is amazing considering the difficulty of the position.

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With Simmons becoming an unrestricted free agent next season and the Angels most likely not vying for a playoff position this year, there was some speculation that he could be on the move. The Blue Jays did their due diligence by checking in on the shortstop, but were out of the running midway through the day per Ken Rosenthal.

While this may seem like a bit of a miss for fans considering the Blue Jays are trying to make the playoffs this year, I for one cannot dwell too much on the fact that we missed out on Simmons.

The Blue Jays are no doubt looking for defensive help on the left side of the diamond, but the price for Simmons was most likely going to be high given that he would be considered a rental player. If he wasn’t going to be a free agent at the end of the season, I could see the organization possibly sending some prospect capital to California for a few years of a great defensive shortstop, but with Bo Bichette returning from his injury soon (hopefully) and a versatile option in Jonathan Villar being available, you can see why Ross Atkins and co. chose Villar over Simmons.

Another reason the Blue Jays most likely passed on Simmons was that he just hasn’t been healthy this year. He has only played in 11 games this season, spending time on the Injured List with a left ankle sprain and missing a significant portion of August. With the Blue Jays already experiencing injuries to their core players like Bichette and a plethora of starting pitchers, it just wasn’t in the cards for Atkins to pull the trigger on the defensive anomaly, instead deciding to send various ‘players to be named later’ for pitching rentals to finish the 2020 season.

Getting Villar will be a huge boost for the roster, and while Andrelton Simmons would have been impressive to see in a Blue Jays uniform, the rental factor combined with the injury this season just didn’t entice management to pull the trigger. Simmons does become a free agent this off-season, so if the Blue Jays are truly interested in his services, they can take another shot at the shortstop without having to sacrifice any prospects.