6 surprising players that could be traded if the Blue Jays are out of it at the deadline

After a scorching start to the 2023 season, the Toronto Blue Jays encountered a speed bump in the month of May that put them back into the middle of the pack in the American League. Luckily, for the early parts of June, they seemed to have gotten back on track, having won seven of eight games prior to their current series against the Minnesota Twins. In the current standings, the Jays sit in fourth place in the AL East division with a record of 36-30, 10.5 games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays. In terms of playoff implications, the Jays are also currently one and a half games behind the third and final wild card spot currently held by the Houston Astros.

The optimist would say, the Jays haven’t even played their weakest part of the schedule yet, so they are bound to go on a run in the coming weeks to get back into the thick of things. The pessimist would think, a lot of their suppose-to-be star players haven’t been really performing up to their standards so far this year. In addition, with the team’s inconsistent play fluctuating to varying degrees of good and bad no matter who their opponents were, events like what has happened the past two games against the Twins exemplified what has been still plaguing the team at times. If that continues to persist, the Jays will be going nowhere fast.

For the most part, at least their recent play has shown some signs of life and determination, so hopefully they can somehow maintain that winning mentality. It appears as though we are getting further and further away from the "if they fall out of contention" discussion; however, if the inevitable does happen and the Jays continue to display inconsistency and struggle down the stretch, one should ponder if they may have to rethink twice for the future and think about potentially trading key players with expiring contracts at the deadline to help build for future success in the coming years.

Here we take a look at six surprising players that could be available at the trade deadline if the Jays somehow miraculously fall beyond recovery.