Blue Jays need to go all-in this offseason as future free agent classes look bleak

The Toronto Blue Jays have already reeled in one of the big fish in free agency this offseason. By landing starting pitcher Dylan Cease, the Blue Jays have set the market and one has to think they aren’t done there. After all, $210 million is already quite the huge financial commitment to go along with the $500 million previously handed out to franchise player Vladimir Guerrero Jr. last season.

But the Blue Jays may be wise, to keep splurging this winter. That is because looking ahead to the future MLB free agent classes, the potential of the Blue Jays adding multiple impactful players looks fairly bleak from what’s available.

Blue Jays need to go all-in this offseason as future free agent classes look bleak

For the 2026 class, it is headlined by pitching aces Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale, with the positional players group looking rather limited as George Springer would be considered one of the top options despite being over age 35. Sale would also be 37 by that time, and based on all the rumors on Skubal, there is a good chance that his services will be already secured by the Detroit Tigers or another MLB team via trade before he even reaches free agency next year.

In terms of the 2027 class, Adley Rutschman and Freddie Freeman lead the top positional player free agents, whereas Zack Wheeler and Jhoan Duran are the main attraction from the pitching side of things, The Blue Jays already have Alejandro Kirk and Guerrero locked in to their catcher and first base positions for the near future, making the necessity for Rutschman and Freeman negligible.

Wheeler will command a bidding war from numerous teams as the unanimous top pitching free agent available, whereas Duran will likely remain property of the Philadelphia Phillies if he continues to perform the way that he has.

As for the 2028 class, it is perhaps the best of the three years with superstars José Ramírez and Ronald Acuña Jr. leading the way, along with Gerrit Cole, Hunter Brown, Josh Hader and Andrés Muñoz headlining the pitching group.

However, by holding onto cash now in order to secure guys who may not even reach free agency three years from now would be a wasted opportunity in their ongoing pursuit of a World Series. Especially knowing the fact that the current closely-bonded core may have some of their key members disbanded by then (for instance, Springer and Kevin Gausman are heading to free agency after the 2026 season).

As a result, there should be only one main focus for the Blue Jays this offseason. That is to surround their current core group with the best missing elite pieces to give them the best chance of winning it all in 2026.

With numerous big-name options such as Kyle Tucker, Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, their very own Bo Bichette, Framber Valdez, Edwin Díaz, Devin Williams and more, it gives Toronto plenty of elite free agents to choose from. Therefore, if there was any offseason the Blue Jays to spend as much as they can this is the offseason to do it.