3 nightmare scenarios for the Blue Jays at this year’s MLB trade deadline

It has been a long and miserable 2024 season to date for the Toronto Blue Jays. With the great anticipation and excitement that had been built up during their past four years after making massive strides in their overall game, the Blue Jays have truly disappointed in many ways. In fact, it certainly felt like as though they have taken a huge step backwards this season. More worrisome though have been the fact that they haven’t been displaying the mentality, nor the fight to be a successful team in the league in the process.

Having produced four consecutive winning seasons between 2020-23 for the first time since the early 1990s, the Jays had successfully made the postseason three times in the process. However, things have not gone as planned for 2024, as they are currently 8 games under .500 at 48-56 and sit at the very bottom of the AL East division. Trailing by nine games clear of the third and final Wild Card playoff spot, it could be officially classified as a lost season for the Jays, if not so already.

With the trade deadline amongst them, it gives the Jays that glimmer of opportunity to salvage their 2024 year by making the right moves to prepare them well for the future. However, for a season that couldn’t seem to get any more worse for Toronto, it actually could if they end up dropping the ball and fail to take full advantage of the deadline. Here, we will take a look at three potential nightmare scenarios that could materialize for the Blue Jays if they don’t end up handling the situation properly. The Jays’ faithful better plead that these don’t happen for the sake of the team’s future.

The Blue Jays end up keeping ANY rental players

Looking ahead to the future, if the Jays fully intend to be competitive once again after a short overhaul of their roster, it will be absolutely vital for them to get rid of all of their current players with expiring contracts. In the past couple of days, they have done a great job in moving three of such players already. Bullpen stalwart Yimi García was dealt to the Seattle Mariners, the ever-so-frustrating Nate Pearson finally found a new home with the Chicago Cubs, and long-time tenured fan favourite Danny Jansen went to the Jays’ AL East arch rivals Boston Red Sox.

But the Jays shouldn’t just stop there, as the likes of Yusei Kikuchi, Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier and Trevor Richards all need to be moved by the trade deadline as well. That’s because the Jays need to do all that they can to maximize the amount of valuable future assets that they can get in return for every rental player that they have. By taking advantage of them being useful trade chips while they still possess some value, it would significantly help give the Jays a huge head start in their retooling for the future.

On the other hand, if the Jays fail to get rid of all of their rental players, they will risk losing them for nothing upon the end of the season (assuming that they won’t likely be re-signing with the team). That would be the last thing the Jays would want if they want to complete a successful short-term retooling or even rebuilding process.

The Blue Jays trade away Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

If the Jays do the unthinkable and shockingly deal away superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., that wouldn’t be just a potential nightmare scenario for the deadline, but an absolute nightmare for the entire Jays’ organization and their fanbase. After all, Guerrero have been at the front and center in leading the Jays’ offense attack for pretty much each of the past few seasons. That has held true even regardless of whether he had posted some struggling numbers or not.

Just to put things into perspective, despite playing in only six seasons so far with the Jays, Guerrero already ranks ninth on the Jays’ all-time list in home runs with 148, tenth in career batting average at .282, sixth in career OPS at .847 and 14th in RBI with 466. It is not every day that the Jays could find a homegrown star that has developed and become as dominant as Guerrero. In fact, one would have to look back to the Vernon Wells and Carlos Delgado days more than two decades ago. As a result, when they do find one, they should do everything they can to keep the rare elite talent in order for long-term success of the team.

By trading away Guerrero, not only would you be dealing away the face of the franchise, it would also indirectly signal to everyone that the Jays will be undergoing a full rebuild. That’s the last thing that the Jays’ organization and their faithful would want. After all, the franchise had come so far in the past few years, you don’t just tear everything down after just one bad season. The focus should instead be on retooling the right way by surrounding key backbone players with the missing pieces to produce the winning formula. For that to happen, Guerrero must remain as the main centrepiece of that winning puzzle. Especially after the fact that he had adamantly expressed that he actually wants to be here and stay in Toronto, you don’t trade someone that’s loyally determined and dedicated like that. You build around such people. Therefore, trading Guerrero would be a monumental mistake that the Jays will ultimately never be able to recover from.