3 awful contracts Blue Jays would love to dump at trade deadline but probably can’t

For the second time in three years, the Toronto Blue Jays are going to enter the trade deadline with an eye on next season and beyond. While they could also do a few things to improve the team immediately in 2026 - it's unlikely they will be able to do enough to overcome a double digit deficit in their own division and a 6.5 game deficit (as of Jul. 25) in the Wild Card race.

In 2024, the Blue Jays sold, and mostly got prospect pieces that were at least a year or two away from making it to the big leagues. It's a strategy Toronto can take again this year, but beyond selling some obvious players who are upcoming free agents there is another group of players the Blue Jays would like to move off of.

That group of players consists of the guys who are making more money than they are currently worth. Even though the Blue Jays have been acting like a big market team and should be able to swallow a couple of bad contracts, it just looks really ugly to see some of this significant money on the books. Especially if it's going to handcuff them from making further moves.

The Blue Jays would probably love to make moves that gets these three contracts off the books at this year's deadline, but finding another team willing to take it on may be the real problem.

Andrés Giménez

This hasn't worked out the way the Blue Jays were hoping it would. The Blue Jays acquired Giménez before the 2025 season, knowing he was under contract for five seasons and owed $104-million. The Blue Jays made Giménez their every day second baseman for the 2025 season, and he deserves a lot of credit for switching positions during the stretch run, due to the injury of shortstop Bo Bichette.

But Giménez just hasn't done enough with his bat to warrant the contract in 2026 and beyond. He's ranked 58th of all qualified shortstops in wRC+ with 70 over the last two season's. His defence has earned him the fifth highest fWAR over the same span (20.1), and some will argue that that makes up for his lackluster bat. But when everyone else around him is also struggling, his .216 average, .606 OPS, and .247 BABIP (over the last two seasons) stands out, and not in a good way. Giménez will be making $23-million per season from 2027 through 2029.

Yariel Rodriguez

The Blue Jays signed Rodriguez to a five-year, $32-million deal in February of 2024. He's had a couple of good stints with Toronto over the past three years, but that's been offset by some really bad performances as well. In 97 games, including 22 starts, Rodriguez has accumulated a 4.05 ERA with 157 strikeouts in 169 innings pitched at the big league level.

However, the 29-year-old Rodriguez has also bounced between the majors and the minors all season and just can't seem to find anything that works against big league hitters. He's posted good numbers with Triple-A Buffalo this year with a 2.87 ERA and 2.72 FIP with 26 strikeouts in 15.2 innings pitched in 13 games. So there could be a team that looks at that and sees that they can pry something out of him.

For the Blue Jays, they owe him $6.4 million each season over the next two years and while that's not terrible, it is a lot of money for a guy that seemingly going to spend more time pitching in Triple-A than he will at the MLB level. It's not an untradeable contract, but it's also not the easiest sell job either.

José Berrios

Berrios is set to make $24-million next season, and the season after once he takes the player option in his contract. The 32-year-old right-handed pitcher underwent Tommy John surgery in May of 2026, which will sideline him for much of the 2027 season. So getting rid of his contract at this years trade deadline is completely out of the question.

In 2026, there are only six pitchers who are making more money than that. Framber Valdez tops the list, followed by Tarik Skubal, Dylan Cease, Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suarez and Michael King. Five other pitchers are making at least $20-million and that includes, Seth Lugo, Zac Gallen, Shota Imanaga, Brandon Woodruff and Merrill Kelly.

This is a ton of money to eat, especially when there are already going to be question marks in the Blue Jays rotation next year.

Can Toronto get creative at the deadline with these three players?

Again, due to Berrios' injury, he won't be getting moved at this years deadline. Maybe, the Blue Jays can pull off a move similar to when they acquired Shane Bieber at the 2025 deadline and sell Berrios while he is rehabbing, but that will have to wait until next season at the earliest.

As for Giménez and Rodriguez, if the Blue Jays are willing to attach a prospect in the deal, they might be able to get off the hook on those contracts. Perhaps a team like the Chicago White Sox or the Atlanta Braves looks at a guy like Giménez and thinks there's real value in his defense.

The White Sox, leading the AL Central, have deployed Colson Montgomery (5.8 defensive fWAR) and Luisangel Acuña (0.6 defensive fWAR) at short. The Braves, leading the NL East, have used Jorge Mateo (3.4 defensive fWAR), and Mauricio Dubón (4.5 fWAR). Giménez currently has an 11.0 defensive fWAR.

Pitching is always a hot commodity at the trade deadline and there could be a team who gets desperate enough to take a chance on Rodriguez, if Toronto's willing to throw in a prospect. At the end of the day, the Blue Jays feel like they are stuck with this money on the books for the time being.

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