The next 4 moves the Blue Jays need to make after the Santiago Espinal trade

On Wednesday, the Toronto Blue Jays finally did something to help alleviate their infield logjam by trading away former All-Star infielder Santiago Espinal to the Cincinnati Reds. Espinal was coming off a subpar season in which he batted just .248 with a .644 OPS, 30 runs scored, 2 home runs and 25 RBI in 93 games played. As a result, he will be looking to get a fresh start with his new ballclub. In McElvain, the Jays will gain some much-needed pitching depth with the former eighth-round selection from the 2022 MLB Draft.

In the fallout of the Espinal trade, let’s take a look at four corresponding moves that the Jays should make in preparation for the start of the 2024 MLB season.

Anoint Cavan Biggio as the Jays’ starting second baseman

Last season, the Jays ran into the dilemma of having too much of a good thing when they were forced to deploy the trio of Espinal, Cavan Biggio and Whit Merrifield in sharing the duties at second base. In doing so, it affected the overall effectiveness of the players involved, with Espinal suffering the most with his worst season of his career. Biggio also struggled at first, but then had a resurgence during the last half of 2023 as a product of increased playing time down the stretch.

Biggio has carried over some of that success into spring training this year, as he has gone 6-for-21 for a .286 average, .893 OPS, with 4 runs scored and 3 doubles. More importantly, he has regained some of his patented patient plate discipline from his rookie season with 7 walks to go along with 8 strikeouts to date. Rather than risk similar circumstances at second base once again this season, the Jays should just anoint Biggio the starter to begin the 2024 season and give him some runway to see what he can do. That way, it would lessen the chance that he would suffer the same fate as Espinal for not producing due to limited playing time. In addition, it should allow him to focus on becoming an effective overall player, rather than worrying if he will be playing the next day every time out.