Blue Jays: Four feasible ways to make up for the loss of Semien

Bringing in a new face

I know we’ve talked about it a fair bit here at Jays Journal, and I wanted to get this out of the way right at the start. The Blue Jays have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. locked in at first base and the same for Bo Bichette at shortstop, but there are still question marks at second and third base. If the season were to begin today it’s likely that Cavan Biggio and Santiago Espinal would fill those roles, but that could be a gamble for the Blue Jays in light of the production and health of the former in 2021. More likely, I suspect those two will split one of the infield jobs, and another player will be brought into the fold at some point.

We’ve talked about ideal scenarios like the Jays acquiring Jose Ramirez from Cleveland, or tapping the Diamondbacks to see if they would be willing to trade Ketel Marte. The other day I covered the best remaining candidates that could be available through both free agency and trade outside of those two. That list included the likes of Oakland’s Matt Chapman, Jeff McNeil of the Mets, Isiah Kiner-Falefa of the Rangers, and more, who are all potential replacements to varying degrees.

With the Blue Jays having some strong trade pieces in their minor league system, and some reports that they’d be willing to trade from their big league roster, it’s possible that I’m nowhere close to the ultimate solution. Whomever the Blue Jays bring in, that player is going to have some big shoes to fill, and hopefully the fan base won’t expect the second-coming of what Semien brought to the table.

Without knowing who that player could be it’s really tough to guess just how much of Semien’s production they’ll make up for, but fortunately they shouldn’t have to do it all alone.