Blue Jays: An ideal offseason from this point forward

Turning prospect capital into a star

To address the fourth and final area of the club, I’m finally going to turn to the trade market. If you read my article from yesterday, you likely have an idea where I’m going with this.

The Blue Jays missed out on the chance to add Francisco Lindor from Cleveland, but I don’t think that’s where the phone calls should stop with Atkins’ former employer. If they’d be willing to entertain the idea, the Blue Jays should make an extremely aggressive bid for Jose Ramirez.

He’s close to a perfect fit to go along with what they’ve already built with homegrown talent. Ramirez could slide in as the everyday third baseman, hit in the top third of the lineup, and bring average, power, and speed to an already talented group. With Ramirez on board, this is how I dream the lineup would look:

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1- Cavan Biggio (2B)
2- Bo Bichette (SS)
3- Ramirez (3B)
4- Teoscar Hernandez (RF)
5- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (1B)
6- Rowdy Tellez (DH)
7- Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (LF)
8- Bradley Jr. (CF)
9- Danny Jansen/Alejandro Kirk (C)

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

That lineup gives you balance, aided by Ramirez’s ability to switch-hit, and really feels like it would give them a chance to keep up with a healthy Yankee offence, which is scary in its own right.

You may also notice that Grichuk isn’t part of the starting lineup anymore, and that’s because I’ve made him part of the return for Ramirez headed to Cleveland. Check out the tweet I’ve posted below, with a screen shot courtesy of baseballtradevalues.com’s trade simulator.

After getting some feedback from fellow Blue Jays fans on Twitter, I’d tweak the offer a little bit, even if I don’t think Derek Fisher’s value is as “worthless” as so many Jays’ fans might believe. If I were to improve the offer a little (and leave out Fisher), I’d do it like this:

Toronto gets:

• Jose Ramirez

Cleveland gets: 

• Randal Grichuk
• Anthony Kay
• Jordan Groshans
• Alejandro Kirk
• Adam Kloffenstein
• Cash

According to baseballtradevalue’s simulator, Ramirez’s median trade value is a score of 72.8. Adding up Groshans/Kirk/Kloffenstein/Kay gives you 74.2. I included Grichuk because the Blue Jays would have a surplus of outfielders to deal with, and the 29-year-old has three years and 28 million remaining on his deal. Grichuk’s (-)12.6 brings the total down to 61.6, but I think there’s a way to bridge the gap. Let’s say the Blue Jays kick in 75% of the money to make it happen (or 21 million), and suddenly I’d wager that it’s pretty enticing for Cleveland here. They could use a veteran to improve a terrible outfield they’ve utilized in recent seasons, and Grichuk would be a legitimate upgrade for them.

More importantly they’d receive a legit top 100 prospect in Groshans to help them rebuild the next generation of their infield, a solid hitting catcher in Kirk, and two solid starters with potential. Kay could help right away and has a chance for a much higher ceiling than he’s shown, and I think Kloffenstein’s future is bright. It’s a high price to pay for the Blue Jays, but Ramirez is an MVP calibre player. I also believe they could get away with it because of the presence of other exciting prospects like Austin Martin, Simeon Woods Richardson, Alek Manoah, Gabriel Moreno, Orelvis Martinez, Miguel Hiraldo, and more. They have the prospect depth to make a big move and not end up glutting their system.

Ramirez is under contract for the bargain rate of nine million in 2021, and we also we’ll add a third of Grichuk’s buyout at seven million as well. Adding that 16 million to the 42 we’ve piled up, the payroll sits near the top-end of our limits at 158 million.

I’ll remind you one last time that I’ve completed this exercise with the understanding that it’s not going to be that easy to improve the roster this much. However, I feel like this fantasy plan has addressed all four areas the Blue Jays needed to, and made the lineup, starting rotation, and the bullpen better.

Assuming the season starts on time, we’re about 2.5 months away from kicking off the 2021 schedule. There’s still time for Atkins and his staff to improve the roster, but there’s also a lot of work yet to be done. If they could get anywhere close to what I’ve ended up with here, I’d be one happy fan.