7 Blue Jays least likely to be dealt at the trade deadline

With many teams starting their wheeling and dealing the past few days, the Toronto Blue Jays are bound to join the fray in the upcoming days with hopes to reshape their team with the best possible roster for the playoff run. In doing so, we have created earlier a list of candidates that would most likely be dealt by the Jays at the trade deadline to achieve that goal.

Here, we will now take a look at seven other Blue Jays that will most likely stay in place with the ballclub even after the trade deadline, like it or not.

Ricky Tiedemann

For the Jays’ top prospect Ricky Tiedemann, his 2023 season has unfortunately been derailed so far after suffering a biceps inflammation injury back in early May. Prior to his injury, he had two promising starts at the beginning of the season with the Jays’ Double-A affiliate New Hampshire Fisher Cats, followed by two less than stellar outings leading up to his injury. For the season with the Fisher Cats, he is 0-1 with a 4.97 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, with 23 strikeouts in just 12.2 innings pitched.

The good news is that Tiedemann has recently began his rehab this month and pitched for the FCL Blue Jays in the Florida Complex League for the first time in over two months on July 21, as he went two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. This week, he has been transferred up to Single-A Dunedin as he made his second rehab start this past Saturday. This time, he went three scoreless innings with one walk and six strikeouts, as things appear to be progressing swiftly in the right direction.

Tiedemann still represents one of the best starting pitching prospects the Blue Jays have in their system, and with their current lack of starting pitching depth, they certainly should avoid including him in any trade talks at all to preserve his potential impactful future with the ballclub.

Alejandro Kirk

Alejandro Kirk has had a disappointing year so far in 2023 with the Jays. After all, he was just coming off his stellar All-Star, Silver Slugger season in 2022 in which he posted a solid .285 batting average and .786 OPS, with 59 runs scored, 19 doubles, 14 home runs, 63 RBI, 63 walks and 58 strikeouts. However for 2023, in a platoon role with Danny Jansen, Kirk has mustered just six doubles, six home runs, and 28 RBI in 78 games, while sporting a batting average and OPS that was quite below his career average at the same time. In particular, he had been mired in a major slump since June 14, as he has hit only .207 with a .557 OPS, with only three runs scored, one double, one home run and four RBI in 21 games played, before his sudden two home run outburst on Saturday afternoon.

With his current struggles, along with the fact that Jansen may seem injury-prone, we have even recently questioned whether the Jays should pursue an upgrade at the catching position at the trade deadline. However, it may not feel like it, but Kirk is still at a very young age of 24 and still has time to develop and grow his game given more experience and playing time.

More importantly, his rapid ascension through the Jays’ minor league system was primarily due to his hitting prowess, as he proved to be no fluke. So he isn’t going to forget how to hit overnight, so perhaps some slight adjustments is all that is needed to get Kirk back on track. Finally, if the team were to trade away Kirk for more catching help, it would make the trading away of Gabriel Moreno that much more painful, so good chances are they won’t want that to surface at all. Hopefully, his impressive showing from this past Saturday is just the start of things to come for him in the upcoming weeks.

Daulton Varsho

For Jays’ outfielder Daulton Varsho, it has been a mixed bag for him this season, as one aspect of his game has been outstanding, whereas another aspect has been severely lagging behind so far in 2023. Varsho has certainly come as advertised, as with his exceptional abilities in the field, he has definitely provided the defensive stability in the outfield that the Jays had sought for the past few years. He has made only one error all year and has 17 DRS to his belt, forming a two-headed defensive monster with Kevin Kiermaier.

However, his offensive output has left a lot to be desired. As one of the candidates the Jays looked upon to help fill the run production void left by the departed Teoscar Hernández and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Varsho has struggled to a .214 average with a .634 OPS, with 41 runs scored, 12 home runs, 34 RBI and 12 stolen bases in 104 games played. He has shown some glimpses of promise with his impressive small ball play, beating out bunts for singles and roaming the basepaths with smart instincts, but some more power production was expected given his potential witnessed during his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Despite that, as much as some fans wished the trade could be reversed, Varsho won’t be moved any time soon. One would just need to recall that even the power-hitting Hernández struggled to hit for average and struck out at a high rate when he first joined the Jays back then, until he finally evolved into the slugging machine he is now today. Varsho has the added bonus in that his defence is miles ahead of Hernández, so if he can get his bat to slowly round into form, he will be an unstoppable force on both sides of the field.

George Springer

For veteran George Springer, who has certainly been Mr. Consistency throughout his career, he has uncharacteristically had an up and down year so far for the 2023 season. The four-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger could normally be counted on in providing solid run production year in and year out, but unfortunately, this year he is currently on pace for one of his worst offensive outputs in his entire career.

Up until now, Springer has hit only .249 with a .701 OPS, with 56 runs scored, 13 home runs, 41 RBI and 13 stolen bases in 102 games played. At this rate, he would be on track for less than 20 home runs and 60 RBI in total by season’s end, which is way below his usual standards. His struggles have been so evident that he has been recently moved out of his usual leadoff spot in favour of the hot-hitting Whit Merrifield, as Springer has gone an unthinkable 1-for-39 in his last ten games.

Looking back, perhaps his concussion and shoulder injury that he suffered from the AL Wild Card series last year against the Seattle Mariners still has some lingering effects on him, or perhaps the wrong side of 30 is beginning to creep up on him. But despite the underperforming season, the Jays are not likely to move Springer at the trade deadline because his current huge contract is definitely not an attractive aspect for potential buyers. In addition, the Jays totally believe that given Springer’s track record, he will eventually work out of his funk and starting leading the team to success again like he has always done for the previous two years with the ballclub. At least the Jays and their faithful certainly hope so.

Bo Bichette

What can we say about Bo Bichette, the man practically has done it all for the Blue Jays in 2023. When it comes reliability and being able to deliver in the biggest moments, Bichette has always been the one that can be counted upon to do so. Not only has he continued his offensive dominance this year with the boys in blue, he has actually improved his defence quite drastically, along with taking a more leadership role with the team by leading by example with his everyday work ethic and play.

For 2023, Bichette has hit .318 with an .842 OPS, along with 50 runs scored, 17 home runs, 59 RBI and three stolen bases. More importantly, he has made only eight errors for a .974 fielding percentage almost two-thirds into the season, after averaging close to 24 per year in the previous two seasons. On top of that, he even has 1 DRS, which is a huge improvement from his -16 from last year. As one of the clubhouse leaders, he even pulled Guerrero aside for a pep talk to get his teammate back in focus and confident in himself to get him back on track.

As the Jays fight for their playoff lives, they will definitely look to Bichette as one of the key contributors for the ballclub down the stretch. Perhaps with his rise to superstardom, some may think the Jays should trade him now while they can because it will be hard to extend him down the road, but rest assured, Bichette is a franchise player and those don’t come around very often. So the Jays will definitely do all they can to keep him as long as they can for now and the future.

Alek Manoah

For former Jays’ ace Alek Manoah, he has had a season to forget so far in 2023. After coming off a breakthrough, Cy Young-calibre type season last year, many were expecting big things from Manoah this year in leading the Jays to another postseason berth. However, he has been anything but, posting a 2-8 record with a bloated 5.87 ERA, 1.79 WHIP, giving up 50 earned runs including 13 home runs, a whopping 54 walks and 68 strikeouts in 76.2 innings pitched in 17 starts. He had been dealing with control and command issues all year and even spent a stint in the minors to readjust his pitching mechanics. So far, after coming back from the stint, he has shown some mixed results.

Although some may have expressed their frustrations and want Manoah traded by the deadline while he has any value left, it will most likely not come to fruition. After all, his potential and skills are all definitely still in place, he just needs to put it all back together and regain his confidence and pitching ability to be what he used to be in the past few years. The best example to draw upon is his teammate José Berríos, who had a horrendous 2022 campaign last year, giving up hard contact and was inconsistent all year long. Berríos worked hard and has now produced a strong bounce back 2023 season for the Jays. So give it some patience, and Manoah will probably be able to do the same, at least the Jays definitely believe in him, so we should as well.

In the end, the Jays may make some moves that may surprise us, but rest assured that the aforementioned players above are most likely not going to be involved in those transactions.