It takes extreme nimbleness to thread the needle to become both buyers and sellers at the trade deadline, but 2026 might be the first time in a long time when the Toronto Blue Jays do a bit of both.

With their playoff hopes growing fainter by the day, the Blue Jays can look ahead to the 2027 season (or whenever MLB comes back after a potential lockout) and start rebuilding their roster for their next postseason run.

Any semblance of offence would be a welcome addition to this roster, but they’ll also need starting pitching for next year and beyond. With pending free agents like Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer, and Shane Bieber, there might be three holes to fill in the rotation next year.

These would be some controllable starting pitcher options who could help the Blue Jays reload for next season and beyond.

One of the few teams with a higher payroll that is in a worse tailspin than the Blue Jays is the New York Mets. They’ll be sellers at the trade deadline, and one name that’s emerged as a trade candidate is right-hander Clay Holmes, according to Robert Murray of FanSided.

Similar to Shane Bieber last year, Holmes is still on the mend and working his way back from an injury so that he won’t be available until early August. With 2026 a write-off for the Blue Jays, landing Holmes early would give the Blue Jays some runway to piece together their starting rotation for next year.

With $12 million owed to Holmes for the 2027 campaign, that’s a reasonable amount to pay for a starting pitcher with No. 2 potential behind Dylan Cease.

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan will continue to be bandied about as a top trade target until his days in the Twin Cities finally come to a close.

He was a prime trade candidate last year as well, and perhaps sensing the lack of arms that would be available for trade, the Twins held firm and kept Ryan when they traded practically every other player of value, save for Byron Buxton.

Arguably the best starting pitching trade target not named Tarik Skubal, Ryan can slide into the top of any contender’s starting rotation. That even includes clubs on the outside looking in, like the Blue Jays.

It would cost a king’s ransom, but for a team like Toronto that aims to be a contender next season, Ryan could fill one of the voids left behind by either Gausman, Scherzer, or Bieber. But given the prospect capital it would take to land Ryan, it feels like a waste for the Blue Jays to trade for him, only to have him toil away on an uncompetitive squad in Toronto this year.

Now we’re finally getting into the starting pitchers with two-plus years of control, as Reid Detmers of the Los Angeles Angels is under club control through the 2028 season. Detmers has posted an all-star-worthy campaign thus far, posting the best numbers of his career.

Reining in his walk rate to a career-low 7.4% has been key, as Detmers has always hovered around the 26% strikeout rate. Statistically, he has the best slider in the game this year, with a +13 run value on that pitch. There are some tantalizing numbers under the hood to explore if you’re the Blue Jays and pitching coach Pete Walker.

While it’s unlikely these would be utilized, Detmers also has two options remaining if things go sideways for whichever team employs him post-trade deadline. Having that flexibility is beneficial for a club like the Blue Jays, but having a mid-rotation starter like Detmers to fill out the starting five would save the Jays some work this offseason.

Another Los Angeles Angel on this list, Jose Soriano has had a tale of two seasons in 2026. Through his first six starts, Soriano posted a 0.24 ERA with 43 strikeouts to 13 walks. In 16 starts since, Soriano’s ERA is 4.64 with 84 strikeouts to 44 walks.

He was bound to come back down to earth sooner or later, but his string of four consecutive quality starts to start the season positioned him as one of the American League’s early Cy Young candidates. That pace wasn’t sustainable forever, but, like Cease, if Soriano could cut down on the walks a tad, he’d elevate his game to the next tier.

As one of the more volatile options on this list, a team like the Blue Jays has to ask itself whether it’s worth taking a risk on a pitcher like Soriano who has experienced wild swings in his game in 2026. Expected statistics indicate Soriano is a little better than his peripherals suggest, and he has an intriguing repertoire.

The San Francisco Giants seem to have the same problem the Blue Jays did circa pre-2019: they can’t get any free agents to take their money. So when a fixture agrees to stick around, you can be damn sure the Giants aren’t going to trade him away.

Logan Webb signed a five-year, $90 million contract with the Giants in April 2023, and much like Gausman for the Blue Jays, has been one of the most reliable, durable, and valuable starting pitchers in MLB.

But at some point, surely the Giants must feel like they need to enter the rebuild phase, and trading away their No. 1 starting pitcher in Webb would usher in that new era. With two-plus years of control remaining ($23 million for 2027 and $24 million for 2028), Webb’s still far under market value for a starting pitcher of his calibre.

With the Miami Marlins teetering on the edge of contention, they could be one of the surprise teams to become buyers at the trade deadline. But as they sit a few games beyond the final Wild Card spot, they just as easily could shift into fire-sale mode and capitalize on a weak trade deadline.

If Miami sells, Sandy Alcantara would be one of their biggest trade chips. Still, I believe right-hander Max Meyer has some sneaky potential as a breakout candidate in the next few years, and he could fetch a boatload of prospects for the Marlins if they play their cards right.

Meyer was named an All-Star for the first time, and with three-plus years of team control through salary arbitration, he’d be a dream for a team that believes its window of contention is wide open.