2 Blue Jays trade rumors we hope come true, 1 we hope doesn't happen

We hope Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stays put and gets extended

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is obviously the biggest chip the Blue Jays have if they were to completely blow up the current team. While there has been rampant speculation about the front office's stance on trading the 25-year-old slugger, if there's any hope for the future of bringing postseason baseball back to Toronto, Guerrero has to be a part of that.

Atkins put everyone's mind at ease at the beginning of June by saying that it doesn't make sense to trade Guerrero. That hasn't stopped rumors from circulating about the franchise player being moved. According to Seattle Sports’ Brent Drecker, the Seattle Mariners are the latest club reportedly aggressively pursuing the Blue Jays’ star, as MLB insider Jon Heyman said on a recent livestream.

So, they're not going to trade him now, while he has extra value with a year of team control. They want to try to build a contender around him in 2025. Why not just pony up and sign him to an extension?

After a less-than-convincing start to the year, the four-time All-Star has dramatically turned things around and taken his place as the premier generational talent the fans have been waiting to see since his 2021 MVP-caliber season. Fans who were "out" on Guerrero should be buying right back in with his performance as he tries to single-handedly carry the offense.

Despite hitting .287, he hit just five home runs in his first 250 plate appearances this season. However, since June 1 he has found his power stroke again. Heading into Friday, he had obliterated 13 homers in 189 plate appearances while slashing .307/.344/.591.

Guerrero knows he'll be paid. Whether the Blue Jays end up being the team that pays him is another matter, but he has said on multiple occasions that he wants to stay in Toronto. We sure hope that after the trade deadline passes, the front office decides to open the pocketbook and ink Guerrero to a long-term extension to set the stage for the next competitive Blue Jays team.

We hope the Blue Jays continue to take advantage of sellable pitchers

Now that relief pitcher Yimi García is the first domino to fall, after being dealt to the Seattle Mariners on Friday, we hope that the Blue Jays continue moving out veteran arms on expiring contracts. Atkins and company need to take advantage of the pieces that they can move, including starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi and perhaps even reliever Trevor Richards.

The 33-year-old Kikuchi is at the end of his tumultuous three-year deal and is all but gone. He has been mentioned as a popular trade chip among starting pitchers on the market. Despite his 4.75 ERA, his 10.12 K/9 and career-best 2.33 BB/9 should be enough to make contenders want to add him to the back end of their rotations.

MLB.com's Keegan Matheson provided a blueprint for possible returns in a Kikuchi trade. He puts the ceiling at a couple of top-20 Triple-A prospects and a Single-A pitcher like the St. Louis Cardinals got from the Baltimore Orioles for Jack Flaherty at last year's deadline.

The floor for Kikuchi, he says, looks more like the Los Angeles Dodgers' acquisition of Ryan Yarbrough from the Kansas City Royals. They gave up their No. 29 prospect and a Rookie-ball infielder in that one.

As for Richards, despite his recent problems in July — in which he has a 16.20 ERA in nine appearances — he will still have some value after his performance over the first three months of the season. In 42 innings through the end of June, the 31-year-old right-hander posted a 2.57 ERA and 0.86 WHIP, which were comparable to García's season numbers with Toronto.

Based on what the Royals gave up in their recent trade for Washington Nationals reliever Hunter Harvey — their No. 2 prospect and the 39th overall pick in the recent MLB Draft — the Blue Jays would be foolish not to find a suitor for their 33-year-old right-hander. Even with Richards not having the extra year of control that Havery has, he was having a much better season until recently, and Toronto should continue to capitalize on the lucrative reliever market.

We hope Kevin Gausman doesn't get traded

This one recently popped up as a possibility, courtesy of Bob Nightengale of USA Today, who says that the Blue Jays could entertain offers for starter Kevin Gausman.

The Blue Jays would be crazy to trade Gausman though, right? If they want to contend next year, then yes, they would be crazy to trade the 33-year-old right-hander. There's no denying that his two remaining years of team control would make him a valuable trade chip right now. But his value might be higher next year if he bounces back from his shockingly rough 2024 campaign and regresses closer to his previous form.

After his Cy Young-worthy 2023, nobody could have seen this season coming from Gausman. His 4.55 ERA and 1.30 WHIP are not the numbers we thought we'd see this year. His 22.9 percent strikeout rate is the lowest he has posted since 2018, while his 26.4 percent CSW (called plus swinging strike rate) is his worst since his second season in the majors.

Just because he has had a down year, we don't want to see him head out the door at the deadline. Even though the Blue Jays have all but said they won't be trading players with term left on their contract, that doesn't mean that contending teams won't still try to pry the two-time All-Star away from Toronto.

We'd love to see Gausman stick around, at least for one more season, and get a chance to redeem himself next year.