4 of the top Blue Jays storylines to watch as the 2024 season winds down

It's safe to say that the 2024 season for the Toronto Blue Jays has been, well, suboptimal. At 61-68, the club is 15 games out of first place in the AL East and 10.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. Point blank: there's no hope of contention this year, which has been apparent for a while.

The trade deadline proved to be an extremely active time for the organization and there was a major shakeup that could not have been more necessary. Literally every single rental and a pair of players with another year of control beyond the current one were sent packing in a pretty significantly sized rebuild.

The likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette stayed put (for the time being) and a ton of new talent was brought aboard. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of the Blue Jays' top 30 prospects per MLB Pipeline are made up of players either drafted this year or acquired at the deadline.

We've already had the opportunity to see multiple new faces at the big league level in Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner, both of whom came over in the Yusei Kikuchi trade from the Astros. Not far behind them is Jonatan Clase (acquired from Seattle for Yimi Garcia) and Jake Bloss (also acquired for Kikuchi).

Seeing the youngsters play is one of the top storylines for Blue Jays fans to follow as the season winds down - but it's far from the only one. Let's take a look at six of the most important storylines to monitor as a failure of a season comes to a close.

How much further Vladimir Guerrero Jr. increases his next contract

Vladdy has been on an absolute tear going back to the trade deadline and he's doing a lot to increase the value of a potential contract extension. With the Bo-Vlad core running out of time to make a run to the postseason, it seems that the time to determine a plan of action is nearing for the Blue Jays.

On the season, Guerrero's leading the American League in games played while also hitting 33 doubles and 26 home runs with 81 RBI and 75 runs scored. His .316 batting average is the highest he's ever had in a single season, which is nice to see after he dipped down to .264 last season.

On the other hand, Bichette has been injured for a decent chunk of the year and when he's been healthy, his performance has fallen off a cliff. He's hit just .223 in 79 games, posting an OPS+ of 70 and being worth -0.3 WAR per Baseball Reference.

One of the wilder stats of Guerrero's is his OPS+, which currently sits at 163. The craziest part about that is that this is only four points (basically four percent) lower than his MVP-worthy performance back in 2021. Even though he hasn't been hitting quite as many home runs and isn't on a 111 RBI pace, Guerrero has nearly been every bit as valuable this year as he was that year.

Extending Guerrero and letting Bichette either walk in free agency or be traded at the 2025 deadline for a haul should be the way to go. For the final month or so of the current season, it's just going to be a matter of us sitting back and watching just how far Vladdy can increase his next contract.

Which young players step up, which get passed on the depth chart

One of the best parts of the Blue Jays' deadline sell-off was seeing the amount of opportunities open up on the big league roster now that the rentals were gone. Moving on from Danny Jansen, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Kevin Kiermaier and Justin Turner immediately opened up four roster spots for new faces, and the new guys we've seen have been solid.

Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner, two of the three pieces acquired by the Blue Jays in the Yusei Kikuchi-Astros trade, have been two excellent contributors in the nightly lineup. Loperfido had gotten off to a slow start at first, but he's starting to strikeout less and has consistently been showing off his gap power skills. Wagner on the other hand, has been Davis Schneider-like in that he came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. He's earned pretty much every day at-bats at second base.

Loperfido, Wagner, Addison Barger, Schneider, Leo Jimenez and Spencer Horwitz are all young guys who have received longer looks in the big leagues. Of the bunch, Barger and Schneider have both had the most difficulties getting going.

One of the storylines to monitor is who can separate themselves from the group down the stretch. We're firmly in "2025 audition mode" and these players can't afford to struggle while their peers continue to thrive. Schneider in particular is going to be under a microscope as the current campaign winds down, because he's not a guarantee to make next year's Opening Day roster if he continues to run into hard times at the plate.

How unproven starting pitchers perform down the stretch

At one point this year, the Blue Jays' starting rotation looked something like this:

• Kevin Gausman
• Jose Berrios
• Chris Bassitt
• Yusei Kikuchi
• ?

Filling out the final spot has been a combination of Alek Manoah, Yariel Rodriguez and Bowden Francis. Manoah performed admirably in a five-start cameo before he underwent season-ending surgery. Plus, Kikuchi was moved at the deadline, so that left Rodriguez and Francis as the two guys the Blue Jays really needed to step up.

And step up they have. Rodriguez's 4.40 ERA on the season doesn't exactly jump off the page, but he's gradually been going deeper into games and, despite shaky outings in his last two starts, he's been a damn good pitcher. He's done enough to stick in the rotation through the end of the year, but there's still a chance that he ends up a high-leverage reliever by the time we get to the end of his four-year contract.

Then there's Francis, who is the latest AL Player of the Week. Truly, not enough can be said about him and how much of a step forward he's taken on the mound this year. He began the year in the rotation but it didn't go well ... at all. Trips to the minor leagues and demotions to the bullpen didn't slow him down and now he's gone seven innings in each of his last two starts, allowing a combined one earned run in that time.

Over those two starts, he's gone 14 innings while allowing just one run on four hits, striking out a total of 15 batters and not walking any. He seems to have hit his stride at an excellent time, as he's certainly going to be competing for a spot in this rotation come spring of next year, too.

September call-up watch

There are a ton of candidates to keep an eye on when it comes to the Blue Jays' September call-ups. Just on the 40-man alone, Nick Raposo, Luis De Los Santos, Jonatan Clase and eventually Nathan Lukes are all going to be under consideration on the position player side. This is without mentioning Orelvis Martinez, who's going to come off the restricted list at the end of September.

Pitching possibilities include Jake Bloss, Paolo Espino, Jose Cuas, Yerry Rodriguez, Luis Frias, Easton Lucas, Adam Macko, Brandon Eisert and Hagen Danner. These are just 40-man options, though, and there are some players not even on the 40-man who could conceivably be under consideration.

Strictly guessing here, I think Clase and Bloss will be the two players who are brought up from Triple-A and added to the big league roster. Both of these players are top Blue Jays prospects and were just acquired at the deadline (Clase for Yimi Garcia, Bloss for Kikuchi). The Blue Jays have not exactly made it a secret that they want to see what they've got in some of their young pieces. Getting Clase and Bloss up for a cup of coffee before they're given larger roles next year just feels like the most obvious way to go here.