5 best trade deadline moves the Blue Jays have made in the past decade

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In the past couple of days, the Toronto Blue Jays have been one of the more active participants of the trade deadline, having dealt away Yimi García, Nate Pearson and Danny Jansen in exchange for some unproven yet potentially promising prospects. Whether or not these end up being fantastic moves being made by the Jays, only time will tell.

With dire hopes that the current trade deadline will turn out to be a positive one for the Jays down the road, let’s take a trip down memory lane and look back at the five best deadline moves that they had made in the past decade that ultimately helped the team in a big way.

2015 – Blue Jays acquire David Price from the Tigers for Daniel Norris, Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt

With the Jays hovering around the .500 mark and needing a significant boost to take a serious run at the playoffs in 2015, they worked out a huge blockbuster deal to acquire former Cy Young winner David Price from the Tigers. Sure, they had to give up a hefty package of pitchers, including their No. 1 prospect at the time in Daniel Norris. But what Price did for the Jays more than made up for the “price”, as the trio of arms traded away never really ended up reaching their full potential in the big leagues.

In the final two months of the 2015 season, Price went a dazzling 9-1 with a 2.30 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, along with 87 strikeouts in 74.1 innings pitched over 11 starts to propel the middling Jays team into the postseason. He ended up being a less of a factor during the playoffs, as the Jays would end up falling to the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS. But without the valiant effort of Price down the stretch, they certainly wouldn’t have made it to the big show for the first time since their World Series championship year back in 1993..

2015 – Blue Jays acquire Troy Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins from the Rockies for José Reyes, Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro and Jesus Tinoco

In obtaining five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner Troy Tulowitzki, the Jays finally had one of the best shortstops in the game on their side. Not only did he provide valuable production at the plate, he helped stabilize the infield defense for the Jays to help them go on two successful postseason runs in 2015 and 2016. In 238 career games with the Jays, Tulowitzki batted .250 with a .727 OPS, together with 101 runs scored, 39 doubles, 36 home runs and 122 RBI. In addition, what appeared to be just a throw-in at the time in LaTroy Hawkins turned out to be a vital bullpen piece down the stretch in 2015 as he posted a 2.76 ERA with 14 strikeouts in 16.1 innings pitched.

For the pieces that went the other way, Reyes was on the downside of his career and was a shell of his former self when joining the Rockies. Both Hoffman and Castro ended up spending numerous years in the league before finally becoming integral bullpen pieces with their current teams today. As for Tinoco, he has become a player of negligible significance. So despite the “all-in” approach by Toronto to nab the key piece in Tulowitzki, it had worked out in the best way possible in the end. That was because the Jays’ two deep playoff runs in 2015 and 2016 still remain the furthest runs they have made this century.

2017 – Blue Jays acquire Nori Aoki and Teoscar Hernández from the Astros for Francisco Liriano

Perhaps among the five best deadline trades, this one represents the closest to the situation that the Jays are in currently this season. With the Jays destined to miss the playoffs for the first time in three years and likely headed towards a rebuild in 2017, they unloaded veteran Francisco Liriano in exchange for another veteran in Nori Aoki and an intriguing prospect with enormous power in Teoscar Hernández.

Both Liriano and Aoki ended up cancelling each other out as they failed to provide any significant contributions to the team they were ultimately traded to. But the big wild card in the trade turned out to be Hernández, as he develop and become one of the Jays’ main offensive juggernauts for a good part of five seasons between 2018-2022. He would go on to win two Silver Slugger awards, as well as earning his first ever All-Star nod in 2021. This is exactly what the Jays are hoping for with this year’s trade deadline, being able to catch lightning in a bottle to potentially get the “next Hernández” to help with their future success.

2020 – Blue Jays acquire Robbie Ray from the Diamondbacks for Travis Bergen

During the 2020 COVID-shortened season, the young overachieving Jays team was looking to shore up their starting rotation, as they were hungry to make the playoffs once again. As a result, Robbie Ray was one of the key, yet seemingly minor at the time, additions made by the Jays at the trade deadline that year. Having struggled mightily with his control and command in the prior seasons before joining the team, Ray came cheap as Toronto has to just give up Travis Bergen, who wasn’t even among the Jays’ top 30 prospects list.

As a result, it has become one of the most lopsided trades that the Jays have made in recent years. Not only did Bergen end up rejoining the Jays the following year, Ray would go on to produce his best ever season of his career in 2021 with Toronto. In 32 starts, Ray compiled a stellar 13-7 record, while leading the AL in ERA (2.84), WHIP (1.05), innings pitched (193.1) and strikeouts (248) en route to capturing his first ever Cy Young award. Pretty awesome return for something that the Jays essentially got for free.

2021 – Blue Jays acquire José Berríos from the Twins for Austin Martin and Simeon Woods-Richardson

With the Jays looking for pitching help once again in 2021, they managed to pry away the ace from the Minnesota Twins’ pitching staff in José Berríos at the trade deadline. In doing so, the Jays had to part with perhaps the best pure hitter in his draft class in Austin Martin, as well as a promising young arm in Simeon Woods-Richardson. Woods-Richardson has grown in his game and has become an integral part in the Twins’ rotation despite some warts that still needs polishing, Whereas Martin has yet to become the prolific hitter he was expected to be now into his fourth professional season.

On the other hand, Berríos has become a solid mainstay in the Jays’ front-end of the rotation for the past four seasons. He may have had a slight blip on the radar during his underwhelming 2022 year, but he had been his usual dominant self in his other three seasons to date. Overall, Berríos had posted a solid 37-31 record with a 4.19 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 149 walks and 508 strikeouts in 562.2 innings pitched over 98 starts in a Jays’ uniform. He remains very much in the team’s plans going forward and will be vital for their success for now and the future.

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