Blue Jays patch holes with a trade deadline reminiscent of moves made in 2016
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Chugging along with a playoff berth well within sight, the Blue Jays were one of the most active teams ahead of this year’s trade deadline.
They approached Monday’s deadline with two fairly glaring needs — starting pitching depth and a veteran middle infielder — and both holes got patched up. The team added Daniel Vogelbach and Taijuan Walker in two separate deals with the Seattle Mariners and then they added Robbie Ray, Ross Stripling, and Jonathan Villar.
A key to this year’s deadline was also not selling the farm in order to make these improvements. When it was all said and done, Ross Atkins noted that he was walking the tightrope of improving the team for this year’s run while also not mortgaging too much of the future.
“We had two main goals,” Atkins said on a Zoom call with reporters Monday evening. “One eye on now and one eye on the future and making sure we balance that. And we feel like we balance the future by not parting ways with our upper-echelon prospects and we balance the present by bolstering our major-league roster.“There were other things we could have done. It’s thinking about wanting that opportunity to continue for us, so it doesn’t mean just holding on to prospects, it means continuing to acquire and develop them, but we are confident that into this offseason and hopefully next deadline that we will have plenty of access to continue to acquire talent.”
The San Diego Padres, who are about a year or two ahead of the Blue Jays in their rebuild-to-compete phase, were the big buyers at this year’s deadline. They have a 21-15 record and have a legit chance of kicking the door down and making a deep playoff run this fall.
The Padres went out and added Austin Nola, Taylor Williams, Jason Castro, Dan Altavilla, Austin Adams, Mitch Moreland, and Trevor Rosenthal, and they capped that off with the big addition of Mike Clevinger. All told, these moves cost the Padres a combination of quality prospects and young roster players like Taylor Trammell, Josh Naylor, Austin Hedges, and Edward Olivares.
At this stage of their rebuild, the Blue Jays aren’t ready to be dealing away that much from their farm or from the group of young talent on their roster.
We don’t yet know who the two PTBNLs are heading to the Dodgers, but, otherwise, Toronto managed to add five players without giving up any top-level prospects. The biggest name they gave away was Griffin Conine, a former second-round pick who’s ranked No. 16 by MLB Pipeline on their top prospects list.
Eventually, we’ll see the Blue Jays make a huge splash or two to kick open their competitive window and compete for a World Series, but right now, in a seller’s market, this isn’t the time. Still, this is a better team right now than it was one week ago.
The Jays operated with a strategy much akin to the one we saw back in 2016, when the front office made a handful of under-the-radar additions, hoping that players struggling in a different situation can improve and make a difference with a change of scenery.
During the 2016 season, the year after Alex Anthopolous went all-in with his legendary trade deadline, the Jays added Jason Grilli, Joaquin Benoit, Francisco Liriano, Melvin Upton Jr., Dioner Navarro, and Scott Feldman, ultimately raising the floor of the roster and patching various holes without giving up a hell of a lot worth note in return.
The 2016 Jays acquired Grilli at the end of May when their bullpen was struggling and was badly in need of a veteran arm. Grilli had a 5.29 ERA across 17 innings with the Braves at the time, but ended up becoming a key late-inning arm for the Jays down the stretch. It was a similar thing with Joaquin Benoit, who had a 5.18 ERA in Seattle and then allowed just one earned run over 23 2/3 innings after being dealt to Toronto.
Another key addition was Liriano, who thrived after a change of scenery. Liriano had a 5.46 ERA over 21 starts with the Pirates, but, after getting reunited with Russell Martin in Toronto, found his groove. Liriano posted a 2.92 ERA over 10 appearances (eight starts and two in relief) down the stretch and also picked up the win in the Blue Jays’ Wild Card game victory over the O’s with a stellar performance out of the ‘pen.
Feldman, Navarro, and Upton were fairly disappointing, but the latter two provided some much-needed depth on the bench. Navarro was an upgrade over Josh Thole and Upton gave the team a platoon option and some speed.
No huge splashes, just an assortment of random, bargain-bin additions who ultimately ended up being the difference between the Blue Jays making the playoffs and not.
This year’s strategy had a similar energy. Adding Walker and Villar are clear-cut, quality rental additions that we didn’t see in 2016, but bringing in struggling players in Vogelbach, Stripling, and Ray represents buy-low moves with the goal of catching lightning in a bottle. Both Ray and Stripling are having the worst seasons of their careers, but could thrive in a new environment or in a different role, like with Grilli, Liriano, and Benoit.
Stripling is having a tough season, but he’s been a quality arm for the Dodgers in the past. He owns a career ERA of 3.68 and has generally had better results when used as a reliever than as a starter. Ray has electric stuff, as you can see by his 12/5 strikeouts per nine, but he’s also walking a batter an inning, which has resulted in a brutal 7.84 ERA this year. Maybe a tinker to his delivery can make Ray a weapon out of the ‘pen.
It’s hard to say if all of their additions will be difference makers. I feel pretty safe in saying Walker will be a quality starter and Villar will be better than Brandon Drury or Joe Panik, but Stripling, Ray, and Vogelbach are obviously wild cards. Still, the Jays are a better team now than they were last week. They patched up the glaring holes on their roster, and, most importantly, didn’t sell the farm in order to do so.