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 end up trading controllable assets for too little

In addition to moving players out with expiring contracts, the Jays can take full advantage of the buyer’s market that has rapidly transpired in the past day or so and include some of their precious controllable assets as part of their trade deadline strategy. With players under team control, the Jays could potentially receive some far better deals and offers from prospective teams. Reason being that they would provide much more greater value to the contender that could go beyond what just a rental would normally bring.

For instance, by moving players along the lines of a Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Isiah Kiner-Falefa or even superstar Bo Bichette, they could potentially land the Jays a way more attractive package in return. If in doubt, just take a look at these rumoured potential packages for Bichette. So whether their main goal going forward was looking to retool or rebuild, it would no doubt help accelerate that process in a huge way with prime top 10 organizational prospects coming back the other way.

However, if the Jays become too overzealous and end up trading such controllable assets recklessly for anything that they can find in the market, it could essentially backfire on them if the return happens to be way too little. In doing so, not only would the Jays lose a valuable controllable asset, but they could also end up severely dragging out their retool/rebuild. Therefore, in such cases, perhaps holding onto them until a better situation presented itself would be the most wise move. Otherwise, the Jays, believe it or not, could actually become even more worse off than expected.