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Blue Jays deal son of Hall of Famer in surprising trade with Padres

After being acquired at last years deadline the Blue Jays have traded Will Wagner just one year later.
ByBaron Dionis|
Toronto Blue Jays v Los Angeles Angels
Toronto Blue Jays v Los Angeles Angels | Harry How/GettyImages

The Toronto Blue Jays have made their third trade before the Trade Deadline and it is a somewhat surprising move. Toronto sent Will Wagner to San Diego in exchange for catcher Brandon Valenzuela. This trade isn't exactly what the Blue Jays were planning on doing this deadline as trading a big league asset for a prospect, yet here we are.

With Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk getting hurt, adding depth at that position was obviously an idea to try for the Blue Jays, but for Wagner, they got a Double-A prospect that is ranked 26th in a weak Padres' farm system per MLB Pipeline. He has shown an average bat this season, posting a 106 wRC+ with 12 home runs and a .700 OPS. He will likely head to New Hampshire once he reports here too, so he will be the only ranked catcher in the organization to be in Double-A.

Blue Jays deal Will Wagner to Padres for catching prospect Brandon Valenzuela in surprising deal before MLB Trade Deadline.

After losing two key pitching prospects, adding more depth to the farm system was actually not a terrible idea, especially considering Wagner may have been a DFA candidate with all the players Toronto has coming back from the injured list. So with that in mind, landing a ranked prospect at a position of need looks like a solid deal for Atkins, despite it being completely unexpected.

Losing Wagner hurts the overall infield depth, but he truly was not in these playoff plans. His bat fell off a ton from 2024. In the big leagues, Wagner posted an 85 wRC+ with a .634 OPS and a 19.7% strikeout rate in 40 games this season. That has just been a complete underperformance this year and that was leading Toronto in a direction that could have ended in a DFA.

Credit goes to Atkins here as he did get a decent catching prospect in return. Not that it will make much of an impact to this playoff run, but it is still a valuable pickup. Hopefully with these last few minutes before the deadline Toronto can still grab a notable player. Shane Bieber and Seranthony Dominguez are defintiely productive pickups, but it cannot be the only ones.