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.

3B Matt Chapman

For Matt Chapman, one can call his 2023 season a “Tale of Two Worlds” thus far. He began the season like a man on a mission as he obliterated MLB pitching left and right, leading to the best start to a season in his career. In doing so, he captured both AL Player of the Week and AL Player of the Month honours in April, and led MLB in many hitting categories for a while. Then as the month of May came around, it appeared as though someone had kidnapped the blazing Chapman and turned him into the slumping Chapman. All of his hitting stats were practically almost half of what he produced in April, including batting average, OPS, hits, home runs, RBI, walks to name a few, reverting him more towards his career standards.

Nevertheless, if Chapman is offered up in a trade by the Jays at the deadline, there isn’t anyone that would think twice and would quickly snatch him up. Entering his prime at the age of 30, along with his Gold Glove play at third base, the power hitting Chapman would slot in perfectly in the middle of the lineup for any contending team. In addition, with the lack of quality third basemen available in the upcoming free agency at the conclusion of the season, Chapman would be highly sought after by many teams. So if they could get the early jump at the trade deadline to obtain his services, they could hope to entice him with a successful playoff run to stay with the team with a long-term contract afterwards.

UTIL Whit Merrifield

The year of 2023 has been a game changer for Whit Merrifield. Prior to this season, many believed that Merrifield was heading towards father time after he posted his career worst numbers with his former team the Kansas City Royals in 2022. Even after his trade to the Jays at the trade deadline last year, he wasn’t providing much production other than a sudden two-week outburst near the end of the season that helped propel the Jays to a playoff spot. In doing so, the Jays were willing to give Merrifield a chance to show himself this year by putting him into the role as a utility man, covering second base and the outfield when needed.

Not only has Merrifield flourished in that role so far in 2023, his solid play and contributions ensured that he was back being an everyday player for the team, as he appears rejuvenated and back to his All-Star form. For the season, Merrifield has a .300 batting average, .750 OPS, 29 runs scored, two home runs, 25 RBI and has been a threat on the basepaths with 16 stolen bases. With his speed and positional versatility, Merrifield will no doubt be an attractive trade target if he is made available at the deadline, while providing the Jays with some good assets in return. His potential huge impact could be similar to what former MLB player Ben Zobrist did when he joined the Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs, leading each of them to a World Series Championship and Zobrist getting MVP honours in doing so with the Cubs in 2016. But for that very same reason, it’s probably to the Jays’ best interest to do anything they can to retain him.

1B/DH Brandon Belt

Brandon Belt was signed by the Jays during the past offseason to a one-year deal worth $9.3 million to help bolster their offence from the left side, along with adding a veteran presence to the ballclub. Belt started off with an abysmal month of April with his new club, so bad that many people were calling to DFA and cut him from the team. He was striking out at an alarming rate, and had only 10 hits the entire month. However, when the month of May rolled around, the Belt people were expecting more of finally arrived. For that month, he hit .333 with a .940 OPS, with nine runs scored, one home run, seven RBI, 16 walks and 27 strikeouts.

Basically he went from scapegoat to hero in just a month’s time, showing that with his veteran experience, he had the ability to turn things around quickly. He has boosted the confidence of the team and the manager in believing in him from his play so much that he is now being used in the cleanup spot from time to time as well. As Belt has regained his stroke, he has definitely increased his stock if he is to be made available at the trade deadline. Being the savvy veteran that could still provide solid production, along with being a part of two successful World Series Championship teams back when he was with the San Francisco Giants, could just be what an inspiring, contending team would want to add to their squad to help lead them to the Holy Grail.

RHP Erik Swanson

Ever since coming over from the trade with the Seattle Mariners for Teoscar Hernández, Erik Swanson has been a welcome addition to the Jays bullpen for 2023. Much more of a somewhat unknown entity due to his few years of MLB experience prior to joining the Jays, he has certainly shown that he could get the job done so far in his short time with the ballclub. Of all of the current Jays relievers, Swanson has provided the most consistency and reliability coming out of the pen each time out. For the season, he is 2-2 with a 2.56 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, giving up only 14 hits, nine earned runs, 13 walks and 38 strikeouts over 30.2 innings pitched. He also has 16 holds on the year, bypassing his previous high of 14 set last year with the Mariners.

From his stellar performance, Swanson has basically passed everyone in the Jays’ bullpen depth chart other than Jordan Romano, and has now become the reliable setup man to team up with Romano to help finish off games (as well as even being the closer on days when Romano is unavailable, as seen recently). For someone as valuable as Swanson has been with the team, it will be hard to part with a key player like that at the deadline. He would definitely net a nice return from a contending team, as he would be highly pursued by many teams looking to strengthen their bullpen for the postseason run. But it would certainly sting the Jays’ faithful, because they definitely don’t want to lose their only prized return from the Hernández trade that easily.

RHP Yimi García

Back in the 2021/22 offseason, Yimi García signed a two-year, $11 million deal with the Jays to help bolster their bullpen depth. With his past experience in high leverage usage, he was expected to form a solid duo with Romano in the backend of the bullpen to close off games. For the 2022 season, García did exactly that, as he came as advertised, pitching to a 3.10 ERA, 1.049 WHIP, giving up only six home runs while walking 16 and striking out 58 over 61 innings pitched with 23 holds. The Jays appeared to be set with the same dominant duo for 2023, while they focused on upgrading other aspects in their pitching.

However, this season has been a completely different story for García. It has been a struggle for him since the start of the year and has yet to find his groove entering the third month of the season. In 29 games, he has given up 17 earned runs including four home runs already, to go along with nine walks and 33 strikeouts and two blown saves, leading to an ERA of 5.53 and a WHIP of 1.45. If he keeps this up, the surprise isn’t going to be that he will be available at the trade deadline; the surprise is if there will be any team that would even give up any asset(s) to obtain him if so. Anything coming back from a García trade, or perhaps even just letting García go, would be a win for the Jays, as he would be the perfect example of an addition by subtraction for the ballclub.

Hopefully, the Jays will remain in contention for the rest of the 2023 season so that they do not have to worry about losing potentially any of their key players mentioned above at the trade deadline, except maybe for García who at this point is expendable.