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Examining which Blue Jays trade was the best in 2025
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Photo credit: © Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Nov 10, 2025, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 10, 2025, 02:02 EST
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The Major League Baseball season has been over for more than a week.
Falling short in Game 7, the Toronto Blue Jays will surely go big in free agency. They need a pitcher, another bat, and a handful of relievers. More importantly, they need to re-sign Bo Bichette for the cornerstone shortstop (or second baseman) to remain a Blue Jay for life.
Making the World Series wasn’t unexpected if you paid attention to the Blue Jays all season long. During a west coast road trip, the Jays dropped to 16-20, but by the end of May, the season started to feel special. That continued in June, and in July, it was time to go for it before the trade deadline.
The Blue Jays did just that ahead of the Jul. 31 deadline. A few days before the deadline, the Jays sent prospect Juaron Watts-Brown to the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Seranthony Domínguez. Early on trade deadline day, the Jays sent prospect Khal Stephen to the Cleveland Guardians for 2020 American League Cy Young winner Shane Bieber.
They weren’t done, though. During the afternoon, they traded from their surplus of infielders, moving Will Wagner to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Brandon Valenzuela. And shortly before the deadline slammed shut, the Jays sent prospects Alan Roden and Kendry Rojas to the Minnesota Twins for Ty France and Louis Varland.
In this article, we’ll take a look at which of the four trades was the most impactful for the 2025 season.

The Domínguez trade

With Yimi García and Nick Sandlin out for the season, the Blue Jays needed to shore up their bullpen. They did just that on Jul. 29, as they sent Watts-Brown to the Orioles for Domínguez. The scouting report on Domínguez is that the stuff is great, but he struggles with command.
After the trade, he finished with a 3.00 ERA and 3.37 FIP in 21 innings pitched. The flamethrower sat at 97.5 mph with a nasty splitter, which translated to a 29.1 K%, but he struggled to throw strikes at times, finishing the regular season with a 14 BB%.
The regular season isn’t what the Blue Jays acquired Domínguez’s services for, though. In the postseason, he appeared in 12 games, finishing the playoffs with a 3.18 ERA and 6.84 FIP in 11.1 innings pitched. Why the big discrepancy? Well, Domínguez struggled hard with command, walking more batters (11) than he struck out (10). Not great.
Domínguez is one of six free agents for the Blue Jays, and time will tell if he returns to the Blue Jays for the 2026 season.

The Bieber trade

In 2020, Bieber posted a 1.63 ERA and 2.07 FIP in 77.1 innings pitched, striking out 41.1% of batters and walking 7.1% of batters. This was en route to winning the American League Cy Young, but there’s a caveat, as the 2020 season was the pandemic season.
The 2021 and 2022 seasons were good for Bieber when healthy, but his numbers inflated in 2023 as he dealt with injuries. After just two starts in 2024, Bieber’s season came to an end as he required Tommy John surgery. That’s why the Blue Jays were able to get a Cy Young winner for a good pitching prospect.
Post-trade, Bieber finished with a 3.57 ERA and 4.47 FIP in 40.1 innings pitched, striking out 23.3% of batters and walking 4.4% of batters. Bieber’s postseason was a mixed bag. His first start didn’t go so well, but he pitched well in the American League Championship Series, including a six-inning Game 3. In his lone World Series start, Bieber pitched five and one-third innings with one run allowed.
However, his 2025 postseason will be remembered for giving up the home run to Will Smith in the top of the 11th, which turned out to be the game-winning run. Shortly after, it was announced by the team that Bieber opted in to his player option for the 2026 season.

The Valenzuela trade

Trading Will Wagner for a minor league catcher was never going to be an impactful trade this year. That said, Valenzuela is the Blue Jays’ backup catcher of the future, as they even added him to the 40-man roster recently.
In 479 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A, the 25-year-old catcher slashed .224/.309/.383, but his a career-high 15 home runs while walking 10.9% of the time. If either Alejandro Kirk or Tyler Heineman goes down with an injury in 2026, Valenzuela will surely be the first catcher called up.

The Varland/France trade

Lastly, the Blue Jays sent top prospect Rojas and Roden to the Twins in exchange for Varland and France. Starting with the latter, France had 103 plate appearances in the regular season with the Blue Jays, hitting one home run. He only received four plate appearances in the postseason, and ended up winning the AL’s Gold Glove for first baseman.
Varland was the notable acquisition. After the trade, he finished the season with a 4.94 ERA and 3.56 FIP in 23.2 innings pitched with the Blue Jays. He had a strong September to return to the circle of trust, and Varland went on to pitch in 15 of the Blue Jays’ 18 postseason games, breaking the record for most games pitched.
The 27-year-old will make the league minimum in 2026 and is under team control until after the 2030 season. The Jays will have to decide whether he’ll pitch out of the bullpen or rotation, but whatever they choose, it was a great trade.

Which trade was the most impactful

With all that being said, which trade was the most impactful for the remainder of the regular season and postseason run? Realistically, it’s between the Bieber trade and the Varland trade.
Varland was a key reliever in the postseason and got some huge outs for the Blue Jays as he shattered a record. Bieber pitched in several must-win games and threw the final pitch for the Blue Jays in 2025.
At the end of the day, the most impactful trade for the Blue Jays was probably the Varland trade, with the Bieber trade not too far behind.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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