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How do the Blue Jays shift focus after the Roki Sasaki saga?
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Photo credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
Ian Hunter
Jan 20, 2025, 07:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 19, 2025, 20:58 EST
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Silver medallists. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Go ahead, we’ve heard them all this offseason when it comes to the Toronto Blue Jays. At this point, it’s become wallpaper and fans are almost immune to it now.
After right-hander Roki Sasaki signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, just add the Sasaki saga to a long-running list of the Blue Jays missing out on marquee free agents. But there are two approaches the Blue Jays can take; cower, hide and count down to Opening Day, or get to work.
Unlike last offseason when the Blue Jays didn’t have a Plan B after missing out on Shohei Ohtani, there are still plenty of options in free agency to make their team better. And with an under-the-radar trade (or two), this team could still be competitive in 2025.
It’s going to require at least one free agent taking the Blue Jays’ money, but there’s a path toward contention, even after failing to seal the deal on so many impact players.

Sign Alex Bregman to a sizable contract

Alex Bregman is the best free agent on the market, and it isn’t even close. Even after a down year offensively by his standards, the former Houston Astros third baseman is projected to have a 4.0 fWAR season.
He’s still one of the best defensive third basemen in the game, a player who fits this regime’s M.O. of glove-first skills over everything, but if you can hit, that’s a bonus. Bregman could serve as some much-needed protection for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and if Bregman can bump his walk total up a bit, that would round out his offensive ability.
Every agent knows the Blue Jays are probably desperate to get something done. But there are reasons players like Bregman are still unsigned. His and super agent Scott Boras’s contract demands don’t meet the value of what teams will pay.
The Blue Jays will need to adjust their calculus and get out of their comfort zone to land a player like Bregman, whose skills will deteriorate on the back end of the contract. But you have to pay to play, and the Blue Jays can’t be “disciplined” and still make this a competitive team right now.
Because Toronto is an organization with many unknowns over the next few years, the contract could include some opt-outs to give Bregman a few fail-safes if he wants to re-enter free agency and make more money down the road.
But in reality, it’s going to take a four or five-year deal to get Bregman to come to Toronto with a competitive AAV. And that still might not be enough, but if the Blue Jays have bounced numbers around with Bregman’s agent in the past, they should probably add another year or $30 million to that contract to push this thing across the finish line while sacrificing a draft pick along the way.

Get a deal done with Anthony Santander

I haven’t seen a “will they/won’t they” saga drag on this long since the Blue Jays’ everlasting interest in signing Jay Bruce. When Toronto whiffed on Juan Soto, the next most logical outfielder target was Anthony Santander.
Both sides are still interested (according to the latest from Shi Davidi and Ben Nicholson-Smith at Sportsnet), and yet Santander is still unsigned with less than a month until players are due to report to Spring Training.
Santander had a career year in 2024 and everybody knows it, but the Blue Jays eventually have to gamble on a position player and pay above market value to add some power to their lineup. Even if he tumbles back down the 30-ish home run echelon, that’s another 30-plus homer hitter the Blue Jays don’t currently employ.
Much like a potential Bregman contract, there has to be some built-in regression expected for the upfront production in the first few years of a deal. Santander adds value in that he can play the outfield capably and he can switch-hit.

Sign Andrew Heaney as a back-end rotation piece

The ship on ace pitchers sailed when Corbin Burnes signed with the Diamondbacks, but the Blue Jays could easily raise the floor on their starting rotation by bringing in another arm. One intriguing name that’s floating out there is Andrew Heaney.
As someone who streamed many a Heaney start at the end of the fantasy baseball season, his innings and strikeouts picked up quite a bit in the second half for the Rangers. He averaged only 5.1 innings per start in 2024, and the expected workload for a fifth starter is to be a five-and-dive guy, so it makes sense here.
The Blue Jays have also been linked to the left-hander in the past, albeit this time around, it would be on a much shorter term (maybe a one-year deal plus a club option for a second). His 23% K rate is decent for a fifth starter, and signing Heaney would shift Yariel Rodriguez to the bullpen, hopefully stabilizing the Blue Jays’ relief corps even more.

Trade for Taylor Ward to fill in at LF

After trading for Straw, the Blue Jays have nine outfielders on their depth chart. Why not add one more to make it an even round ten? Angels outfielder Taylor Ward has turned a lot of heads around baseball these last few years, and his 25-home-run campaign boosted his profile even further.
He would be an instant upgrade in left field for the Blue Jays, and he’s played the bulk of his games over the last few years at the position. It wouldn’t require any Blue Jays playing out of position, though it would mean parting with one (or two) outfielders back in trade to the Angels.
Ward is a bit of a late bloomer to storm onto the scene at age 30, but better late than never. He’s under team control for two more seasons and has enough charge in his bat to be a top-of-the-order threat for a team like the Blue Jays.

Trade for Ke’Bryan Hayes and David Bednar if you can’t lock down Bregman

In the event Bregman signs elsewhere, this would be one hell of a pivot. But if the Blue Jays have proven anything this offseason, it’s that there’s no contract not willing to gobble up. Hayes has $37 million guaranteed remaining on his initial 8-year/$70 million deal signed with the Pirates and the Jays have a personal connection with Ben Cherington in Pittsburgh.
His bat is a far departure from Bregman’s, but you’re getting a superior fielder at the hot corner who is only 27 years old. This would lean far, far into the Blue Jays’ model of defense over everything, but why not quadruple down on this philosophy if you can’t get an impact bat, I guess?
The hidden gem in this trade would be getting reliever David Bedar as part of this deal as well. He’s also coming off a down season, but the Pirates’ closer is under team control for two more seasons. At $5.9 million this season, he’s the fifth-highest-paid player on the Pirates, and if there’s anything a small-market team loves, it’s shedding payroll. Bednar’s name has frequently been on the midseason trade rumour mill over the past few years.
Admittedly, this is taking a flier not only on one player but two. You’re counting on both Bednar to return to his All-Star reliever form, and you’re banking on Hayes at least delivering Gold Glove-calibre defense and at best giving the Blue Jays league-average offense. Signing a power bat like Santander helps make this deal a bit better because he brings up the power aspect and the Jays have some prospect depth in the infield and outfield that can likely get this deal done.

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