Toronto Blue Jays: It’s not too late, but it’s time to act now

The Blue Jays have missed out on acquiring Francisco Lindor and a few other stars this winter. It’s not too late to make roster upgrades, but the time is now to act before star player pond is empty.

One of the most consistent rumours for the Blue Jays this offseason has been connecting them to Cleveland’s Francisco Lindor in a potential blockbuster trade. Or I guess I should say, Lindor of the New York Mets.

By now you’ve likely heard that both Lindor and Carlos Carrasco were traded to New York in exchange for a four-player package of young players and prospects. It was an underwhelming return for Cleveland, especially when you consider that Carrasco was thrown in as well, but Lindor’s looming free agency in a year played a major factor.

While it’s frustrating to see the Blue Jays miss out on another potential opportunity to improve the roster, it’s not quite time to hit the panic button just yet. That said, Ross Atkins and his staff should be feeling a much greater sense of urgency than they were a week ago. The free agent market still hasn’t really budged a whole lot, but with the impact trades taking place in recent weeks you get the sense that the dam could break at any time.

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

Among the impact free agents (and Blue Jays’ targets) still available are George Springer, DJ LeMahieu, Trevor Bauer, and J.T. Realmuto, and there are also a great deal of B and C-tier free agents available as well. All offseason long we’ve heard rumours connecting the Blue Jays to the best available options, and it has ramped up expectations to a level we haven’t seen since the franchise’s last postseason run.

The problem with losing out on impacts players like Lindor, Carrasco, Blake Snell, Yu Darvish, and even Ha-Seong Kim, isn’t that any of them are must-have additions, it’s that the market for top-tier players is starting to dwindle. That could begin to truly define the market for the Jays, but it’s also a scary proposition when other competition exists. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mets continued to pursue another headline addition, and we know that both the Yankees and the Dodgers are in on LeMahieu. Bauer’s market is likely pretty extensive, Realmuto and the Phillies still have mutual interest in a reunion, and Springer and the Blue Jays are reportedly still quite far apart in negotiations, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up as a Met as well before all is said and done.

Even if what I’ve described above all came to fruition, there would still be multiple paths for the Blue Jays to improve. There are still potential trade targets like Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Kyle Hendricks, Kris Bryant, Trevor Story/Nolan Arenado, and likely a few more. Not all of those players are ultimately going to end up being traded, but they could be for the right price. I’m not suggesting that they should overpay just to avoid missing out on getting anyone at all, but the more the market develops, the more they need to learn and react, not retreat.

As of now, not all is lost for Atkins and his staff, or for Blue Jays fans. However, I think it would be prudent to start ramping up the pursuit of the players they see as the best fit for 2021 and beyond. If not, their options could become pretty underwhelming in a hurry.