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Blue Jays: Looking at a great, a good, a bad, and the worst trade Ross Atkins has made
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Photo credit: © John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Mar 25, 2026, 18:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 25, 2026, 14:32 EDT
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A few days ago, the Toronto Blue Jays extended general manager Ross Atkins.
Atkins joined the team toward the end of their window of contention with José Bautista. The Blue Jays have had an up-and-down decade with Atkins at the helm, making it to the American Championship Series in 2016, then rebuilding in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Thanks to the pandemic, the Blue Jays made the playoffs in 2020 with the expanded postseason structure, but were eliminated on the final day of 2021. Finishing as a wild card team in 2022 and 2023, the Jays failed to win a game, before going 74-88 in 2024. It seemed like that could’ve been the end of Atkins’ tenure as the Blue Jays’ GM, but then 2025 happened.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a trade where Atkins was “fleeced”, with a lot more wins in his pocket than losses. In this article, we’ll look at four trades that Atkins has made, one great, one good, one bad, and the worst one of them all. Let’s dig in!

Great trade

The Drew Hutchison trade tree is still ongoing, with the lone player remaining from it on the Blue Jays being Adam Macko. The Hutchison trade itself was great, but the big leaguer they got from it, Francisco Liriano, was the main piece in Ross Atkins’ best trade.
With the team not playing like they had in the previous two seasons, the Blue Jays sold at the 2017 trade deadline. One of the players on the move was Liriano, who was traded to the eventual World Series champions, the Houston Astros. The Jays got a big leaguer in Nori Aoki in return, but the main piece coming back was Teoscar Hernández.
Hernández received a look with the Jays to end the 2017 season, slashing .261/.305/.602 with eight home runs in 95 plate appearances. He was slightly above league average in 2018, and struggled to begin the 2019 season. After being optioned and returning, Hernández became the player he’s known as today.
From June 6th, 2019 until the end of the 2022 season, Hernández slashed .277/.332/.525 with 96 home runs in 1,660 plate appearances for a 131 wRC+. The outfielder earned MVP votes in both 2020 and 2021, winning the Silver Slugger Award in both those seasons.

Good trade

Hernández was traded to the Seattle Mariners in November 2022, a trade which I considered to put in the “bad trade” category. We’ll see how Macko turns out. 
As for the good trade, that came about a month and a half following the Hernández deal, as the Jays sent then top prospect Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Daulton Varsho.
Why is it a good trade? Well, that’s because it worked out for both teams. Needing a left-handed batting outfielder for the 2023 season, the Jays did just that with Varsho, who also happens to be the best defensive centre fielder in the league. There’s also some pop (and swing and miss) in his bat, which makes him a useful option at the bottom of the lineup.
Since 2022, Varsho’s first full season in Major League Baseball, he leads all outfielders with 85 Defensive Runs Saved, 50 Outs Above Average, and 52 Fielding Run Value. The fact he has just one Gold Glove is a travesty.
Moreno also won a Gold Glove, doing so in 2023. It was his first season getting a legitimate opportunity in the big leagues, and he slashed .284/.339/.408 with seven home runs in 380 plate appearances for a 102 wRC+. Gurriel also hit a career-high 24 home runs in 2023, slashing .261/.309/.463 in 592 plate appearances for a 105 wRC+.
What also makes this a win for the Diamondbacks is that they went on to win the National League pennant as a wild card team, before ultimately falling to the Texas Rangers in the World Series. Gurriel Jr. slashed .273/.290/.455 with three home runs in 70 playoff plate appearances, while Moreno slashed .238/.304/.44 with four home runs in the same number of plate appearances in that run.
This was just a good old fashioned baseball trade where both teams fixed a need and won the trade. There were other trades to consider for this as well, such as a handful of the trades ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, the Braydon Fisher trade in 2024, the Robbie Ray trade, the Ross Stripling trade, and the Jason Grilli trade. 
This is where most of Atkins’ trades fall, that or the “nothing really came of it” pile. There’s only a handful of trades you can call bad.

Bad trade

One of those trades came with the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of the 2022 trade deadline. The Jays sent one of their top pitching prospects, Nick Frasso, with Moises Brito to the Dodgers for Mitch White and Alex De Jesus.
This is the most egregious of the trades that fall into the “nothing really came of it” pile. Moises Brito, a free agent, had a strong 2022 campaign, had a good 2023 season, before struggling in 2024 and being released. De Jesus, a then top 30 prospect the Jays got back, struggled to end the 2022 season, had a good 2023, but then struggled in 2024 and 2025 and is currently a free agent.
White and Frasso were the main pieces of the trade. It’s safe to say White’s tenure with the Jays wasn’t great, posting a 7.74 ERA and 3.76 FIP in 43 innings after the trade. In 2023, he had a 7.11 ERA and 4.91 FIP in 12.2 innings pitched, followed by a 5.40 ERA and 4.47 FIP in 10 innings pitched during the 2024 season. During his time as a Blue Jay, White was designated for assignment twice.
The good news is that White has gone on to find success overseas, posting a 2.87 ERA and 3.44 FIP in 24 starts with SSG Landers in the Korean Baseball Organization. As for what the Dodgers got, Frasso eventually became a top 100 prospect, but has since struggled with injuries. He missed all of the 2024 season, and when healthy in 2025, had a 5.49 ERA and 5.68 FIP in Triple-A.
Ultimately, this trade didn’t really hurt the Jays per se, but they could’ve gotten more for Frasso given he became a top 100 prospect in baseball in 2023.
Other considerations for this spot are the Brad Hand trade, the Jonathan Villar trade, and the second Hernández trade, although we’ll wait and see how Macko does in 2026.

The worst trade

The worst trade Atkins has made since joining the Blue Jays in late 2015 is the Josh Donaldson trade. Was it ever going to be anything else?
Donaldson was acquired before the 2015 season from the Oakland Athletics and became one of the best hitters in the planet in 2015. Overall, he slashed .297/.371/.568 with 41 home runs in 711 plate appearances for a 154 wRC+ and 8.7 fWAR. Donaldson was given American League MVP honours thanks to that season.
He had a strong 2016 and 2017 season, but with the Blue Jays out of contention following the 2017 season, his tenure as a Jay was close to coming to an end. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Jays had a great offer on the table for Donaldson, which included Jack Flaherty, who looked like an ace early in his career.
Instead, the Jays elected to hold on to Donaldson until the 2018 trade deadline. A pending free agent, Donaldson slashed just .234/.333/.423 with five home runs in 159 plate appearances to begin the season. He didn’t have a chance to raise his trade stock, injuring his calf in late May and never playing another game for the Jays.
Before the waiver trade deadline on August 31st, the Jays sent Donaldson to the Cleveland Guardians for a player to be named later, which turned out to be Julian Merryweather. Donaldson went on to have three more productive seasons, before struggling in his last two and retiring before the 2024 season.
Merryweather had potential thanks to a high-90s fastball, but he couldn’t stay healthy and was eventually designated for assignment.  What makes this trade so hard to reflect on is that just three years before the trade, Donaldson was an MVP. They could’ve and should’ve done better than Merryweather.
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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