Blue Jays: Three significant “shake it up” trade ideas

As the Blue Jays continue to search for a spark to get their talented team going, it might be time to consider a significant trade ahead of the Aug 2nd deadline.

As Josh Goldberg put it on twitter on Wednesday, the Blue Jays have now played the “manager card”, in hopes of shaking things up for a talented but underperforming team. John Schneider has taken over the managerial duties from Charlie Montoyo, and the decision has been met with mixed feelings as far as what the players have said in the media. It’s clear Montoyo was well liked by the majority, but also that some folks inside the organization felt that a change was necessary.

The first game of Schneider’s career as a MLB manager went well as the Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday on the back of yet another quality outing from Ross Stripling. The veteran right-hander has been a godsend for the rotation since Hyun Jin Ryu went down, and he was excellent again in his last outing ahead of the All-Star break. However, the Blue Jays dropped the opener of a four-game set to the Kansas City Royals on Thursday, which was all that much more disappointing considering the Royals had to leave 10 players at home thanks to the rules around crossing the border into Canada (or the United States) without a vaccination.

Thursday’s loss was a reminder that simply changing out the man in charge of the dugout isn’t going to fix all of the problems with this team overnight. I have no doubt that Schneider can have a positive influence on this team, but the roster has some pretty undeniable flaws at the moment, something even Ross Atkins admitted to the press this week when discussing Montoyo’s dismissal.

So what should the Blue Jays do about it? I’d like present three trade ideas that I think would fit the mold as the type of significant deal this team should be looking at right now. These are nothing more than ideas, and it takes two to tango as with any trade, but I tried to be creative while also staying within the realm of possibility.

Here are the tires I’d be kicking if I were in Atkins’ seat over the next few weeks.

Trade #1- Nabbing a quality starter from the Marlins

The Blue Jays have several needs on their roster at the moment, and unfortunately one of them projected to be a strength of the team before the season began. Injuries and underperformance had a different plan however, as the Blue Jays lost Hyun Jin Ryu to Tommy John surgery, and Yusei Kikuchi struggled with fastball location to the point that the Jays had no choice but to look in another direction, with the southpaw landing on the Injured List as well. The rotation hasn’t been the kind of strength that we had hoped for.

On top of that, the Blue Jays have had injuries to other depth starters such as Nate Pearson and Anthony Kay, and the result has left them with a very thin depth chart. Max Castillo looks like he’ll get the ball against the Royals on Saturday, and his wasn’t a name that was even mentioned in Blue Jays circles before the season began.

If I’m Ross Atkins right now, I’m looking for a solution to pad the rotation, and in a perfect world I’d be trying to acquire a pitcher with multiple years of contract control. Ryu likely won’t pitch in the 2023 season either, and Stripling is a free agent at the end of the year, so the Blue Jays would do well to add a reliable piece alongside Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, and Jose Berrios.

Enter the Miami Marlins, who have an embarrassment of riches in their starting rotation. Sandy Alcantara has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this year, and Pablo Lopez might be the most underrated starter in the game. Trevor Rogers has had a disappointing 2022 campaign relative to his All-Star calibre 2021, but his future is bright regardless. On top of that the Marlins depth chart also includes high-upside young starters like Jesus Luzardo, Elieser Hernandez, Sixto Sanchez, and Max Meyer, who was just called up to the big leagues to make his debut.

While the Marlins are pretty stacked in their rotation, the same can’t be said for their catching ranks. Jacob Stalling is at the top of their depth chart at the moment, and they only have one catcher among their top 30 prospects according to MLB.com, and that’s Joe Rock, whose ETA is roughly 2025.

The Blue Jays could offer from an area of strength of their own, and perhaps there’s a fit here. I’m going to go a little drastic here right off the bat, but I truly believe the Blue Jays are at a point where they need to make a significant move.

Blue Jays get: 

Pablo Lopez

Marlins get: 

Danny Jansen
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

It seems like a big price for the Blue Jays to pay, but a quality arm like Lopez wouldn’t come cheap, if the Marlins even considered offers on him at all. The only reason I think they’d even consider it is because of the quality of what they’d get in return, the fact that Lopez will be a free agent after the 2024 season, and that he has two trips left through arbitration before he gets there.

Jansen is in a similar spot as far as his contract control is concerned, and while I’d truly hate to see the Blue Jays trade him, I can’t really imagine them moving either of Alejandro Kirk or Gabriel Moreno. He’d be a big upgrade on both sides of the ball for Miami, and he’d be around for at least a few seasons to work with their talented young pitching staff.

As for Gurriel Jr., this is a move I wouldn’t have made a year ago. That said, at that time we all believed he would be with the Blue Jays until at least the end of the 2024 season. Since we learned more about his contract last fall, he’s actually going to be eligible to test the open market at the end of next season. It would be a big blow to lose him, but Jansen alone wouldn’t be enough to convince the Marlins to move a top of the rotation arm like Lopez. Maybe the Blue Jays could try to expand the deal and include a veteran left-handed hitter like Garrett Cooper, but a Jansen/Gurriel Jr. for Lopez swap probably isn’t all that far off in terms of value.

Is this likely to happen? Probably not, but is it something the Blue Jays should be exploring? In my mind the fit makes too much sense not to at least make the phone call.

Another team with pitching depth

The old baseball adage, “you can never have too much pitching” pretty much always rings true, and that’s been the case for the Blue Jays so far in 2022. As I’ve already said, they have needs in the bullpen and in the rotation, so I thought I would stick with that theme.

Another team with very strong depth in their rotation is the San Diego Padres, and if I’m playing video game GM here, I could see a swap lining up that would work for both them and the Blue Jays. Here’s what I would propose:

Padres receive: 

Teoscar Hernandez

Blue Jays receive: 

Blake Snell

I know what you’re thinking, and I realize that Snell hasn’t been the same ace-level performer that many of us remember from his days with the Tampa Bay Rays. That doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t still offer an upgrade to the current Blue Jays rotation, and I probably don’t have to remind you that Hernandez has disappointed this year relative to the standard he set over the last two seasons.

This could also work for both sides as far as the contract commitment is concerned. Snell is a 29 year old that will be a free agent after the 2023 campaign who makes 13.1 million against the Padres payroll this year, and 16.6 million next year. Hernandez is also 29 years old, is making 10.65 million this season, and will likely see a similar raise and pay range to what Snell is slated to make, so they lined up pretty well that way.

This would leave the Padres with a rotation that includes Joe Musgrove, Yu Darvish, Sean Manaea, Mike Clevinger, and Mackenzie Gore. Admittedly there are names on that list that I’d rather see the Blue Jays pursue, but I’m not sure that’s very feasible for a Padres team that is looking to make the postseason this year and for the next several seasons. All three of Musgrove, Manaea, and Clevinger will be free agents after the 2022 season as well, so at least Snell comes with matching contract control to Hernandez.

Do I think this one is going to happen? I have to admit that it’s a pretty big long shot as well, and it would likely require the Blue Jays to look for another outfield bat to help make up for Hernandez’s loss. The Padres could use some better production from their corner outfielders, so I do think there’s a fit here, it’s just hard to say if either team would seriously consider it.