Blue Jays rumors: Starting pitching depth is on their trade deadline wish list

With the Toronto Blue Jays recent moves prior to the trade deadline, they have done well in unloading players with expiring contracts in exchange for some intriguing prospects. However, there appears to be one important thing that has been still missing, which was making sure the return they got included some starting pitching prospects. So far, the Jays had received many pieces that were mainly positional prospects in the trades that they have made, but only one had been a pitching prospect in Rookie-level pitcher Gilberto Batista. 

With the Jays ongoing problem of having a lack of starting pitching depth in recent years, getting more of it is key for future success for the Jays, as manager John Schneider clearly stated in a report by Kaitlyn McGrath of The Athletic.

“Pitching absolutely at the forefront,” Schneider said in reference to what the Jays should target at the deadline. “And from there, you just look at overall talent and you can never, ever have too much pitching, and I think that has been an area that we’ve talked about for the past year or so.”

Schneider also emphasized that the Jays may choose to actually pursue potential targets in the upper minor league levels so that they could bolster their Triple-A and Double-A rosters and in hand eventually see time in the majors sooner.

It makes total sense for the Jays to add more starting pitching depth for the trade deadline. After all, a plethora of pitchers in their entire system had been decimated by injuries this current season, including major leaguer Alek Manoah and top prospects Ricky Tiedemann, Chad Dallas, Adam Macko, Brandon Barriera and Landen Maroudis to name a few. Bowden Francis had his opportunity to show the Jays what he could do as a starter, but had been a failed experiment for now.

Added to the fact that other viable starting options had struggled as well both in Triple-A and Double-A throughout 2024, it makes it a much more crucial situation for the Jays to replenish their system with much-needed middle-to-high end pitching talent in the high minors. And as McGrath mentioned, It was probably one of the main factors why the Jays selected Trey Yesavage with their first round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft as The Athletic’s Keith Law suggested that he was one of the pitchers from the draft that was most MLB-ready.