Blue Jays may have some unlikely trade pieces to offer

A lot can change in a year, and as the Blue Jays approach this season’s trade deadline there’s a good chance they’ll consider moves they wouldn’t have a year ago.

There’s a good argument to be made that the Blue Jays should push to truly contend in 2021 because of the roster they’re working with these days. There’s a clear need in the bullpen, and arguably in the rotation as well, but for the most part there is a lot to love about what Ross Atkins and his front office team have assembled. In my eyes, this is the best offence in baseball already, and there’s still room for even better performance from this dangerous group.

With a better bullpen the Blue Jays would likely be at least 45-31, if not a lot better than their current 40-36 standing. That said, they were just 6.0 games back of the AL East leading Red Sox heading into Monday, and 5.0 behind the A’s for the 2nd Wild Card spot. With 86 games yet to play in this year’s schedule there’s more than enough time to make up those gaps, provided they go out and improve the pitching staff enough to be able to lock down a late lead.

In order to do that the Blue Jays are going to have to give up some quality players in order to upgrade the way they’d like to. They have a talented enough farm system to make those kind of impact deals, but because of the way this season has developed, they may have some MLB-ready players they could offer up as well.

Some of those potential trade pieces are players that I wouldn’t have predicted would wind up as expendable, but as I’ve already said, a lot can change in a year.