Blue Jays come up as deadline day losers according to The Athletic

Shane Bieber? Pass. Seranthony Dominguez and Louis Varland? Meh. Ty France? Lol!

That pretty much sums up how a couple of the MLB insiders from The Athletic felt about the Toronto Blue Jays' 2025 trade deadline dealings. In an article where they were asked to rate the winners, losers and snoozers of the MLB deadline, the Blue Jays were thrown into the "losers" category.

Andy McCullough chimed in on the Blue Jays and said, "There were so many high-end relievers dealt during these past few days, from the likes of (David) Bednar and Tyler Rogers to long-term solutions like (Jhoan) Duran and (Mason) Miller. The Blue Jays settled for middle relievers Seranthony Domínguez and Louis Varland...It’s possible Domínguez and Varland deepen the relief corps enough to last through October."

Blue Jays come up as deadline day losers according to The Athletic

Not the most reassuring words for Blue Jays fans to hear, although there is some truth to that. The Blue Jays were said to be in on those big time names from Bednar to Ryan Helsley, and even had the package of prospects to match or surpass some of those offers. However, what McCullough may be over looking is that the Blue Jays have gotten some big time, surprising performances out of the likes of Yariel Rodriguez, Brendon Little, Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty and the bullpen numbers have steadily increased as the season has gone on.

They also DFA'd Chad Green around the deadline as well, which is an addition by subtraction move as Green was having one of the worst seasons of his career. Meantime, if the Blue Jays eventually get Yimi Garcia back from the IL, he's another late inning weapon they can utilize. Garcia had 25 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched a 10.7 K/9 rate in between two stints on the Injured List. Adding Varland and Dominguez to this group no doubt deepened the bullpen options. Sure, they didn't pick up an electric closer to possibly be the 1B to Jeff Hoffman as the 1A option, but they now have a pair of strikeout artists with high velocity that will play in close game situations.

Meantime, McCullogh added, "(the Blue Jays) took a flier on rehabbing starter Shane Bieber. It’s possible Bieber, as he returns from Tommy John surgery, can crack the postseason rotation. But on the surface, Toronto missed an opportunity to make a sizable addition to a club that has outplayed its run differential to reach first place in the American League"

Yes, Bieber is definitely a risky move and there is a scenario where Toronto may have just traded one of their best pitching prospects for a guy that might never play a game for them. However, Bieber's rehab is said to be going extremely well and he's at the point where he's looking to build up on his workload.

Bieber, a former Cy Young Award winner, could be a difference maker in October. If healthy, he gives the Blue Jays a legitimate ace type pitcher who has 18 innings of postseason pitching under his belt. While he has a player option on his contract at the end of this year, which means he could be suiting up for a different team in 2026 - GM Ross Atkins made this deal with one goal in mind, and that's Bieber pitching in a World Series game for the Blue Jays.

France, unfortunately, wasn't even mentioned by McCullogh in his comments, but he could be a sneaky good pickup by Atkins if he's able to provide some contact from the right side of the plate. At the very least, we should get some great social media content from the guy.