Blue Jays: Five players who could lose their roster spot at the deadline

The Toronto Blue Jays currently find themselves at the top of the AL Wild Card race alongside the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays. There are quite a few teams that sit just outside the playoff picture like the Cleveland Guardians and the Chicago White Sox, so the second half of the campaign is certainly going to be a fight to the finish that hopefully doesn’t have the Blue Jays falling one game short again this season.

With the trade deadline set for next week, the rumour mills have been at an all-time high, especially with Washington Nationals superstar Juan Soto potentially available if any team can match the high price tag. The Jays would benefit from adding Soto (as would every other team in the league) but it remains to be seen if the front office is willing to pony up what is required to land the Dominican star, or rather if they want to focus their energy elsewhere like the pitching staff over the busy week ahead.

The Blue Jays do have a solid thing going for them in the batting order while reinforcements for the pitching staff, which currently ranks 16th in the league with a 3.94 ERA, could certainly be upgraded before the deadline passes. I would think Ross Atkins and co. will add some arms before the trade deadline is over, it just is yet to be seen whether they will be one-year rentals like Jose Quintana and Daniel Bard or whether they dig deep into their prospect pool and acquire a player with some contract control like Luis Castillo or Scott Barlow.

Regardless of what happens over the next week, if the Blue Jays do make some deals, they will need to clear some room both on the active and the 40-man roster unless someone present on the roster is traded to offset the newly acquired players.

Who could be axed if the Blue Jays add before the deadline?

Trevor Richards

One player I did not expect to struggle as much as he has this year is right-hander Trevor Richards. After being acquired midway through the 2021 campaign and pitching well to end the year, Richards was one of the relievers the Blue Jays staff could trust in the high-pressure situations, at least, that’s how it felt going into the 2022 season.

Fast forward to the end of July and Richards is not living up to expectations, as the former Milwaukee Brewers reliever has struggled to find consistency on the mound and is currently holding a 5.54 ERA through 37 appearances. While June was not kind to him (ten earned runs through eight innings pitched with a neck strain IL stint to finish out the month), the 6’2″ Richards has turned in better results in July, only getting knocked around on Sunday against the Red Sox to the tune of two earned runs with a home run to boot. Before that, Richards had a seven-game stretch going where he didn’t allow an earned run while striking out 12 with four walks through 7.2 innings.

With Richards, it really comes down to the numbers game and who the club would prefer to have on the MLB roster. If the Jays acquire two to three relievers, I believe it will really be decided on whether they want to send Max Castillo down and have him start again in Buffalo or DFA Richards, keeping the Castillo in the Jays bullpen over the veteran reliever. Castillo does have options available but he is pitching better while being able to give the Jays multiple innings.

Bradley Zimmer

Acquired just prior to the start of the 2022 campaign, former top prospect Bradley Zimmer is having a time at the plate this season. Used sparingly this year, mostly in a defensive replacement/pinch runner role, Zimmer has eight hits on the year through 75 at-bats while owning a .452 OPS on the season. He does have two home runs this year, one being off Justin Verlander and the other off Rays reliever Dusten Knight, but he has struck out 33 times, almost half of his at-bats on the campaign (44%).

As the trade deadline is only a week away, any addition the Blue Jays make to the squad requires one member to come off. Who could be dropped?

While the defense is his calling card, if the Blue Jays are looking to add a lefty-bat to the bench, I would imagine the front office is going to let go of Zimmer before they remove Zack Collins, Cavan Biggio, or Raimel Tapia.

Collins could be moved to AAA but considering they like to have Kirk hit in the DH spot on occasion, having the third catcher is an additional safety net that the club has utilized for most of the year. If his bat was playing a little better than a .107 batting average then I could see the argument to keep him and maybe move Collins but considering Tapia can cover centre field when George Springer needs an off-day, I think Zimmer is potentially on the chopping block.

The Options Bus

I will admit that this one is cheating in that it really isn’t just one singular player but involves at least three, and potentially more depending on who you view being within the bigger picture.

So far this year, the Blue Jays have used 27 different pitchers due to poor performance, various injuries, and because of bullpen pitchers being overworked when the starters weren’t able to go deep into games. Numerous players like Jeremy Beasley, Trent Thornton, Matt Gage, Casey Lawerence, and Julian Merryweather have ridden the options train on numerous occasions this year, and if the Blue Jays acquire two to three bullpen arms or even a starter over the next week, there is a chance that the train isn’t needed at the station anymore.

The whole point of rotating between these players was because they needed length out of the bullpen for the reasons I mentioned above. If the club acquires a couple of solid veteran relief arms and maybe even another starter, with Max Castillo on the roster or Ross Stripling/Yusei Kikuchi potentially in the bullpen, they can get the innings and length they need should the situation arise like a freak injury or a starter getting knocked around early.

Zack Collins

Catcher Zack Collins finds himself in a bit of a predicament. He doesn’t necessarily receive a lot of playing time now that Danny Jansen is healthy and Alejandro Kirk is having a great season, as well as the fact that Gabriel Moreno, the organization’s top prospect, is back down in AAA and could be brought back to the Blue Jays if need be as Collins does have options at his disposal.

Factor in that if the Jays do acquire a left-handed bat and decide they require the defensive ability of Zimmer in the back half of the season (given the Springer injury concerns), Collins would most likely be next on the position player chopping block. His stats at the plate aren’t terrible by any means, a .203/.276/.435 slash line with four home runs and a .711 OPS through 69 at-bats but like Zimmer, he strikes out a lot (43% of the time).

This puts Collins in a bit of a tough spot should the Jays add a position player over the next week, as it will really come down to whether the club prefers him or Zimmer on the squad. Collins could also be switched out for Moreno as the season begins to wind down but that won’t necessarily happen this week or particularly anytime soon. It just really matters whether the team ultimately adds a position player and where the value lies in a third catcher or a defensive-minded outfielder for the switch.

We will have to wait and see.