3 recent trade partners the Blue Jays could deal with again at the deadline

It's all about building relationships. In order to make any deal happen, two General Managers and their front offices, have to find some common ground and work together to get a deal done. Some GM's like dealing with certain GM's more than others and that's why you will sometimes see several deals between the same two teams.

For the Toronto Blue Jays and GM Ross Atkins, the last two years have been busy on the trade front. From being a seller at last years deadline, to making trades to improve the team this past offseason, Atkins has grabbed talent from a myriad of clubs around the league.

With the Blue Jays in buy mode this season, lets take a look at the rosters of some recent trade partners and see if there is anything else the Blue Jays could potentially pluck away at, at this years deadline with their needs falling in the order of relief pitching, an additional bat and starting pitching.

3 recent trade partners the Blue Jays could deal with again at the deadline

Cleveland Guardians

Atkins has made more than a handful of deals with the Cleveland Guardians over the years. A couple of the most recent transactions have included receiving outfielder Myles Straw, and second baseman Andrés Giménez in separate deals this past winter.

With the Guardians sitting at 52-53 (entering Monday) they could still go either direction of being buyers or sellers, but with the news of Emmanuel Clase being part of a betting investigation, the Guardians may be about to hit the sell button.

Who would be the best fit on the Blue Jays: Jakob Junis, Steven Kwan

32-year-old reliever Jakob Junis is sporting a 124 ERA+ and has given up just three home runs in 43 innings pitched. He will be a free agent at the end of the season and would fit in well in a Blue Jays bullpen that has allowed 45 home runs this season - seventh most in the AL.

27-year-old left fielder Steven Kwan was listed as a trade target for several teams by ESPN earlier this month. Kwan could bring legitimate leadoff hitting skills to the top of the Blue Jays lineup. The left-handed hitting Kwan has a 3.3 bWAR slashing .285/.350/.411 with a 112 OPS+. He has more walks than strikeouts (39:37) and owns a whiff rate of 9.1, which is in the 100th percentile, and his chase rate of 22.3 is in the 83rd percentile.