3 biggest swings and misses the Blue Jays made at the trade deadline

The Jays did not address their need to add starting pitching depth behind their current question marks in the rotation

With Alek Manoah just recently returning last month from his pitching mechanics rebuilding stint in the minors and Hyun Jin Ryu just coming off the IL after a year off due to Tommy John surgery, the question mark remains what do they have in both Manoah and Ryu as they head towards the stretch run. Are they going to revert to their Cy Young-like form as demonstrated earlier in their careers, or will they be floundering even more like they have been in recent times?

With that uncertainty heading into the trade deadline, it is certainly a no-brainer that the Jays should invest in some insurance on solid starting pitching depth, just to be sure that have everything covered. Value, solid pitchers such as Michael Lorenzen and Jordan Montgomery were readily available. However, once again, they stood pat on that front, while divisional rivals beefed up on their starting rotation, with the Baltimore Orioles getting Jack Flaherty and the Tampa Bay Rays getting Aaron Civale. And as expected as many probably saw it coming, Flaherty would join his new Orioles’ team and dominate the Jays in six strong innings on Thursday to help them to the victory for good measure.

The Jays are definitely taking a gamble that one of Manoah or Ryu will work out in the end, and they are counting on others such as Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi to not implode down the stretch at the same time. But had they just invested in a little depth, we would definitely be feeling a lot more comfortable now with the rotation, as opposed to our current ‘hope and see’ worries that we definitely have now.