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

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.