Five Blue Jays Rebuild Trades, and the Prospects Returned

Five Blue Jays Rebuild Trades, and the Prospects Returned

Soon after Mark Shapiro arrived in Toronto late in August of 2015, plans for an ambitious rebuild began to take shape, even as the Jays charged towards their first post-season in over two decades.  Just over a year later, saddled with some bad veteran contracts, a minor-league system that had been significantly depleted for the championship push of 2015, and questions surrounding the future of the team’s aging stars relative to the projected timeline for the team’s next competitive window – Shapiro’s vision for a long-term organizational re-boot was put into action.  And the new narrative for the fan base at the time?  Patience would be required – this would be neither quick, nor painless.

A gradual, but unequivocal, dismantling commenced.  Certain key players from those 2015-16 teams were simply not re-signed when their deals with the Blue Jays eventually expired, including Jose Bautista (beyond his one-year extension), Edwin Encarnacion, David Price, Ben Revere and others.  Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin were traded once Toronto agreed to retain the majority of their respective salaries.  But many of the other key, higher contract value, veterans of those playoff teams were traded by the Jays in the years following 2016 in exchange for then-unknown, lower contract value, prospects, to build for the future.  To some degree at least, it can be argued that the future for the Jays is now.  Here then, are five Blue Jays rebuild trades for prospects in recent years, and how they have turned out to this point.