Blue Jays prospect in Paul DeJong trade becoming dominant closer in Cardinals system

Last year, when Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette suffered a right knee injury at the eve of the trade deadline, the Jays went out and got Paul DeJong from the St. Louis Cardinals to serve as his temporary replacement. At the time, it made total sense for the Jays to get some insurance at the position, especially when it ended up just costing pitching prospect Matt Svanson. As the Jays’ 13th-round selection from the 2021 MLB Draft, Svanson wasn’t even ranked among the Jays’ top 30 prospects in the organization according to MLB Pipeline at the time of the trade transaction.

Everyone knows how the DeJong experiment turned out. But now, things may have gone from bad to even worse. What appeared to be just a disposal of a minor harmless asset has now transformed into a potential costly move as Svanson has evolved into a dominant closer in the Cardinals’ minor league system. This season, the 25-year-old reliever has been playing for the Cardinals’ Double-A affiliate Springfield in the Texas League. Over 47 appearances, Svanson has gone 4-3 with a 2.35 ERA along with 53 strikeouts in 57.1 innings of work. More importantly, he has been lights out as their primary closer, going a perfect 23-for-23 in save opportunities to lead the entire league in that category.

On top of that, Svanson managed to get better and better as the year progressed. In fact, for the months of July and August, he has been virtually unhittable. During that time frame, he has made 18 appearances, giving up zero earned runs, 10 hits, along with recording 18 strikeouts in 21.2 innings pitched. Here is a clip just to give a sample of the dominance he has shown in recent times in his closing role:

For a Jays team whose bullpen has had all kinds of issues throughout the 2024 season, a shutdown back end reliever in the mold of what Svanson is turning into sure would have come in handy for the team’s future. However, it is now becoming more apparent that they had a late-bloomer on their hands without realizing it. With the way things have been going both for the Jays and Svanson’s drastic growth and development, he could turn out to be one of those that the Jays will regret in letting get away down the road.