Blue Jays: Could Rowdy Tellez be traded for a win now player?

Could the Toronto Blue Jays dangle Rowdy Tellez as trade bait for a player who could make an immediate impact?

The Toronto Blue Jays have not been quiet about the fact that they’re looking to add to their major league roster. After making the postseason, the Blue Jays want to take the next step and be a team that’s a perennial playoff team and contender.

They’ve been linked to big-name players like George Springer, Trevor Bauer, Francisco Lindor, and others. While Springer and Bauer won’t extract any talent from the organization due to the fact that they’re free agents, someone like Lindor would as the Cleveland Indians still have him under contract for another year.

If you go back to last offseason, the biggest trade was Mookie Betts and David Price sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers for three players. One of the players was Alex Verdugo who had experience playing in the major leagues and was ready to stay up there.

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For someone like Lindor, the Indians may be looking for a similar package, a major league player, and prospects.

Let’s say that is the asking price for Lindor, the Blue Jays would have no shortage of major league players that would interest the Indians but it’s a matter of fact if the team would make them available.

For certain, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Bo Bichette, and Nate Pearson are off-limits from their major league team. Those are the guys that the Blue Jays plan to build around. Then there are guys like Cavan Biggio and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. that could potentially be available for a star player but the Blue Jays would prefer to keep them as they also view them as key parts of their future.

There’s also Rowdy Tellez on the roster who has risen up the ranks at around the same time as the players mentioned above have. If the Blue Jays are looking for an impact player, they could offer Tellez as the major league piece going the other way.

In short sample sizes, Tellez has done really well. In his first taste of the big leagues in 2018, he slashed .314/.329/.614 with 22 hits in 23 games. In 35 games in 2020, he slashed .283/.346/.540 with eight home runs.

Although in a bigger portion of games, the results haven’t been the same. He played in 111 games in the 2019 season slashing .227/.293/.449 with 21 homers.

In 169 career major league games played, he has a slash line of .250/.309/.488 with 138 hits and 33 HR.

He’s also on a cheap contract as he’s still earning the major-league minimum as he’s yet to enter his arbitration years. He can be controlled until the 2024 season.

Tellez won’t get on base at a high clip but can really hit for power which could intrigue some teams. He may not interest the Indians as they have a similar player compared to Tellez in Canadian Josh Naylor but other teams could be interested in taking him on.