The <a href="http://bluejaysnation.com">Toronto Blue Jays</a> improved at the MLB trade deadline. The question is, did they improve enough?

Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/07/31/grading-toronto-blue-jays-trade-deadline/">made three trades</a>, bringing in relievers Seranthony Domínguez and Louis Varland, former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, and veteran first baseman Ty France.
The bullpen was the most glaring area of need, and it&#8217;s hard to argue that the additions of Domínguez and Varland don&#8217;t significantly improve the group&#8217;s outlook. A six-man relief corps of those two, Jeff Hoffman, Yariel Rodríugez, Brendon Little, and Braydon Fisher, is among the best in the American League. It accomplishes the goal of shortening games when the postseason arrives, something every team is eager to do to maximize its chances of success in October.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Tuck. Roll. Out. <a href="https://t.co/qnCt105yTq">pic.twitter.com/qnCt105yTq</a>
&mdash; Twins.TV (@twinstv) <a href="https://twitter.com/twinstv/status/1920286334893048246?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
There were some rumblings that the Blue Jays were connected to Mason Miller and Jhoan Duran, before they were ultimately traded to the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies. The price San Diego paid for Miller was not something Atkins and the Blue Jays were capable of matching. Duran felt more attainable, but it&#8217;s always tricky to try and assess how a certain front office views a particular trade package. Even if the Blue Jays were prepared to pay as much, or more than the Phillies did, perhaps Minnesota liked the combination of Eduardo Tait and Mick Abel more than anything the Blue Jays or another team were offering.
The swing for Bieber was one of the most fascinating deadline moves. On talent and pedigree alone, it&#8217;s fair to say Bieber was the best pitcher moved at the trade deadline. The Blue Jays have been searching for more impact at the top of their rotation, and a healthy, productive Bieber helps to accomplish that. It&#8217;s easy to foresee a scenario where Bieber works his way back into shape and gets the ball for the opening game of the ALDS in front of a raucous crowd at Rogers Centre. However, there&#8217;s also a fair amount of risk that Bieber isn&#8217;t quite himself fresh off recovering from Tommy John surgery, and is more of a question mark than the Blue Jays anticipated. Just look at the struggles Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara is having in his first season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The Bieber acquisition is the type of aggressive, risky move that could go a long way to either making or breaking Atkins and the Blue Jays&#8217; season.
The one area that leaves something to be desired is the lack of a meaningful offensive upgrade. Atkins and the front office are confident the strides made by players like Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, Joey Loperfido, and Ernie Clement are legitimate. The Blue Jays are also likely factoring in the impending returns of Daulton Varsho and Andrés Giménez. That being said, France doesn&#8217;t do much to improve the bench. He&#8217;s struggled at the plate over the past two seasons and owns a .680 OPS with just two home runs against left-handed pitching this season. Adding a more versatile player like Willi Castro would&#8217;ve made the entire scope of Toronto&#8217;s deadline moves look stronger.
Despite that, the Blue Jays are certainly a better team on the whole than they were the day before the trade deadline.
Some fans have taken issue with the club&#8217;s inability to add more star-level talent. Seeing high-leverage relievers like David Bednar and Camilo Doval dealt to the rival New York Yankees ruffled a lot of fans&#8217; feathers. Either of Bednar or Doval would&#8217;ve made a lot of sense for the Blue Jays, and surprisingly didn&#8217;t require an enormous acquisition cost.  The Yankees made six total trades to try and fortify a roster that had a number of holes. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made his team better, but the entire conversation is moot if Aaron Judge&#8217;s elbow issue hampers him at all down the stretch and into October.
Other <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/07/31/looking-other-american-league-buyers-before-trade-deadline/">American League contenders</a> like the Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers made impact moves to raise their respective ceilings. The American League is much more competitive than it was before the trade deadline. That being said, it&#8217;s not fair to say the Blue Jays fell way behind as a result of the moves they made. They addressed their most pressing areas of need and have a deeper roster.
The Blue Jays came out of the trade deadline with a 97% chance to make it to the postseason and a nearly 61% chance to win the American League, according to <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds">FanGraphs&#8217; playoff odds</a>. This is the roster they&#8217;re moving forward with. There&#8217;s no more hypothesizing about what moves might be coming to try and improve things or raise the ceiling. The Blue Jays are in a great position. The stage is set for a thrilling few months of baseball. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.
<hr />
<a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-85322" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2099/08/VLADDY_BJN-Merch_727x404_01.png" alt="" width="727" height="404" srcset="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2099/08/VLADDY_BJN-Merch_727x404_01.png 727w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2099/08/VLADDY_BJN-Merch_727x404_01-300x167.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px" /></a>
Celebrate <a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation">Vladdy’s big news</a> in style with the exclusive new <a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation">BlueJaysNation Vladdy merch</a> — available only at <a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation">NationGear.ca</a>! Rep a future Hall of Famer and wear your team&#8217;s pride loud. Limited drop. Don’t miss out.

The <a href="http://bluejaysnation.com">Toronto Blue Jays</a> improved at the MLB trade deadline. The question is, did they improve enough?



Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/07/31/grading-toronto-blue-jays-trade-deadline/">made three trades</a>, bringing in relievers Seranthony Domínguez and Louis Varland, former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber, and veteran first baseman Ty France.

The bullpen was the most glaring area of need, and it's hard to argue that the additions of Domínguez and Varland don't significantly improve the group's outlook. A six-man relief corps of those two, Jeff Hoffman, Yariel Rodríugez, Brendon Little, and Braydon Fisher, is among the best in the American League. It accomplishes the goal of shortening games when the postseason arrives, something every team is eager to do to maximize its chances of success in October.

https://twitter.com/twinstv/status/1920286334893048246

There were some rumblings that the Blue Jays were connected to Mason Miller and Jhoan Duran, before they were ultimately traded to the San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies. The price San Diego paid for Miller was not something Atkins and the Blue Jays were capable of matching. Duran felt more attainable, but it's always tricky to try and assess how a certain front office views a particular trade package. Even if the Blue Jays were prepared to pay as much, or more than the Phillies did, perhaps Minnesota liked the combination of Eduardo Tait and Mick Abel more than anything the Blue Jays or another team were offering.

The swing for Bieber was one of the most fascinating deadline moves. On talent and pedigree alone, it's fair to say Bieber was the best pitcher moved at the trade deadline. The Blue Jays have been searching for more impact at the top of their rotation, and a healthy, productive Bieber helps to accomplish that. It's easy to foresee a scenario where Bieber works his way back into shape and gets the ball for the opening game of the ALDS in front of a raucous crowd at Rogers Centre. However, there's also a fair amount of risk that Bieber isn't quite himself fresh off recovering from Tommy John surgery, and is more of a question mark than the Blue Jays anticipated. Just look at the struggles Miami Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara is having in his first season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The Bieber acquisition is the type of aggressive, risky move that could go a long way to either making or breaking Atkins and the Blue Jays' season.

The one area that leaves something to be desired is the lack of a meaningful offensive upgrade. Atkins and the front office are confident the strides made by players like Addison Barger, Nathan Lukes, Joey Loperfido, and Ernie Clement are legitimate. The Blue Jays are also likely factoring in the impending returns of Daulton Varsho and Andrés Giménez. That being said, France doesn't do much to improve the bench. He's struggled at the plate over the past two seasons and owns a .680 OPS with just two home runs against left-handed pitching this season. Adding a more versatile player like Willi Castro would've made the entire scope of Toronto's deadline moves look stronger.

Despite that, the Blue Jays are certainly a better team on the whole than they were the day before the trade deadline.

Some fans have taken issue with the club's inability to add more star-level talent. Seeing high-leverage relievers like David Bednar and Camilo Doval dealt to the rival New York Yankees ruffled a lot of fans' feathers. Either of Bednar or Doval would've made a lot of sense for the Blue Jays, and surprisingly didn't require an enormous acquisition cost.  The Yankees made six total trades to try and fortify a roster that had a number of holes. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made his team better, but the entire conversation is moot if Aaron Judge's elbow issue hampers him at all down the stretch and into October.

Other <a href="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/2025/07/31/looking-other-american-league-buyers-before-trade-deadline/">American League contenders</a> like the Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers made impact moves to raise their respective ceilings. The American League is much more competitive than it was before the trade deadline. That being said, it's not fair to say the Blue Jays fell way behind as a result of the moves they made. They addressed their most pressing areas of need and have a deeper roster.

The Blue Jays came out of the trade deadline with a 97% chance to make it to the postseason and a nearly 61% chance to win the American League, according to <a href="https://www.fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds">FanGraphs' playoff odds</a>. This is the roster they're moving forward with. There's no more hypothesizing about what moves might be coming to try and improve things or raise the ceiling. The Blue Jays are in a great position. The stage is set for a thrilling few months of baseball. Buckle up and enjoy the ride.

<hr />

<a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-85322" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2099/08/VLADDY_BJN-Merch_727x404_01.png" alt="" width="727" height="404" /></a>

Celebrate <a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation">Vladdy’s big news</a> in style with the exclusive new <a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation">BlueJaysNation Vladdy merch</a> — available only at <a href="https://nationgear.ca/collections/bluejaysnation">NationGear.ca</a>! Rep a future Hall of Famer and wear your team's pride loud. Limited drop. Don’t miss out.

Did the Blue Jays do enough to improve at MLB trade deadline?

Recent articles from Josh Goldberg

Breaking News