MLB insider has wildly encouraging take on Blue Jays' trade deadline position

National analysts are starting to turn their attention to speculating about the 2025 trade deadline. In the American League, there is a log jam forming in the wild card race with six teams within 4.5 games of the final spot. These leads to analysts having varying opinions on what these teams will do once the deadline arrives. Earlier this week, Jeff Passan of ESPN said the Blue Jays will likely hold their ground , but could lean toward trading some players who are on expiring contracts. Meantime, Passan’s colleague Buster Olney suggested otherwise.

Olney was on Toronto radio station TSN earlier this week and said flat out, “The Blue Jays are a million miles away from becoming sellers. They actually, to me…you can look ahead and say there’s a real path for them to make the playoffs and they will play this out and they won’t be sellers before the deadline.”

The long time baseball reporter suggested that after spending the money to sign Vladimir Guerrero Jr., it doesn’t make sense to then throw their hands up in July and press the restart button.

“After they spent all that money on Vladimir Guerrero Jr., after the push this year to try to get better and to have this pitching staff, I think their odds to make the playoffs would have to go down to, like, one percent before they would actually become sellers, and they’re not close to that,” says Olney.

While the Blue Jays are above .500 and have played their best baseball of the season in the last two weeks, there could be a scenario where they completely fall apart. Daulton Varsho and Anthony Santander are already on the Injured List and if the injury bug bites a few more players in the locker room, the Blue Jays could look more like a Buffalo Bisons lineup.

In that scenario, Toronto might be better off in exploring the market for deals involving those impending free agents which includes; Bo Bichette, Chris Bassitt, Erik Swanson, and Max Scherzer. It’s certainly a group that would have some potential suitors making calls to Jays GM Ross Atkins. Similar to last years deadline, Atkins would seemingly be able to turn that into middle to upper level prospects that could help the Blue Jays in the near-future. Especially with the glut of pitching injuries this season, it wouldn't hurt for the Blue Jays to target some upper minor league level arms in these deals to restock that depth.

However, as Olney reiterated, “Given how they’ve handled things over the last year, I do think that…once you get into the bed with the $500 million and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., you’re not going to pull up stakes and wave the white flag at the end of July unless you completely collapse between now and then. The reasonable path for the Blue Jays on Bichette is to essentially look at his situation like they hold a one-year option on him. If you put him out on the trade market this summer…he’s not going to generate a lot of return.”

Olney made that last point in relation to the fact there are not many current contenders who are looking for the services of a shortstop. That market could also change depending on injuries, or if Bichette is open to a positional switch.

Regardless, Onley’s comments hint at the Blue Jays being in the buyers seat come deadline time, which is welcoming news to Jays fans who are seeing the best version of this team in quite some time.