3 moves the Blue Jays must make before the end of the offseason

As the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings have come and gone, the Toronto Blue Jays saw many of their potential rival contenders load up from the free agent market. The Baltimore Orioles managed to grab one of the best power bats in the league in first baseman Pete Alonso for five seasons, the Atlanta Braves nabbed Robert Suárez on a value three-year deal, and of course the Los Angeles Dodgers secured the top free agent reliever available in Edwin Diaz with also a three-year contract.

The Blue Jays have also done well in that market by signing Dylan Cease to a seven-year megadeal. To ensure that Toronto will continue to put themselves ahead of the rest this offseason, they need to continue to take action in the coming weeks to elevate themselves as World Series favourites heading into 2026.

3 moves Blue Jays must make before the end of the offseason

Blue Jays need to create more financial flexibility by moving a player

In order for the Blue Jays to load up on potential free agents after the $210 million deal used to land Cease, they will need to expand their financial resources to make it happen. The best way to do so is to free up some money by moving a player or two on a big contract. With the Blue Jays having added Cease and Ponce to the starting rotation picture along with the emergence of Trey Yesavage, José Berríos has potentially become the odd man out.

Not only does Berríos still have a hefty $67 million left on his contract, he also has the ability to opt-out following the 2026 MLB season. In addition, he already wasn’t too fond of the arrangements when he was relegated to the bullpen towards the end of the season. He was also absent during the Blue Jays drive to the World Series. As a result, perhaps a move to give Berríos a fresh start along with freeing up some salary would be the best win-win scenario for both parties.

Blue Jays need to add a real difference maker to their bullpen

The Blue Jays have done well in adding a couple of key pieces for their bullpen in recent days with the acquisition of Chase Lee from the Detroit Tigers and the signing of Tyler Rogers from free agency. However, with legitimate contenders having loaded up with elite arms with the signings of Diaz, Suárez, Kenley Jansen, Raisel Iglesias, Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley already, Toronto can’t be overly satisfied with just the additions that they had.

The Blue Jays need to go out there and land a potential difference maker to elevate their relief corps to another level for the 2026 season. If it has to be done via the trade route to get someone like the unstoppable Mason Miller, then that should be exactly what they should pursue.

If Toronto still wants to utilize the free agent market, Pete Fairbanks remains the only viable candidate left that would at least move the needle. Nevertheless, they need to add someone to support Jeff Hoffman to ensure that the back end of the bullpen is as elite and stable as possible.

Blue Jays need to re-sign Bo Bichette, now

Finally, the hype surrounding Kyle Tucker in joining the Blue Jays is fun to watch, but the amount of financial commitment to land the top free agent is substantial and could even already be outside of the Blue Jays’ comfort zone. However, Toronto should still have more than enough left to bring back Bo Bichette on a solid, long-term deal, making that potential pursuit much more realistic and plausible.

After all, Bichette has been one of the best offensive shortstops since his debut in 2019. During the past five years, Bichette ranks second among MLB shortstops in batting average (.295) and hits (782), third in RBIs (377), fourth in runs scored (378) and sixth in home runs (92), putting him among the best in the league. Recall that he also had a disastrous 2024 campaign as a part of those five years so to still be among the top six in the league over that time frame speaks volumes of what he was able to do in the other years.

Unless the Blue Jays line up a costly major trade to land someone of at least equal quality (Ketel Marte perhaps?), there isn’t a legitimate replacement in sight both internally and externally in the free agent market that could provide what Bichette can provide. As a result, nothing is more important for the Blue Jays than to bring back the star shortstop to maintain the dominant core backbone of the team for years to come.