The 2024 season clearly hasn't gone the way the Blue Jays hoped. Expected to contend for a Wild Card spot at the very least, the Jays have instead encountered notable injuries (Jordan Romano, Alek Manoah) and seen career-worst performances from several key players (Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier). Top prospect Orelvis Martinez received an 80-game PED suspension. Very, very little has gone well in Toronto -- as evidenced by their 46-56 record and -82 run differential.
Unsurprisingly, Toronto has become a deadline seller. The front office reportedly isn't interested in any kind of large-scale rebuild, however, and is focused on primarily selling off rental assets. Reliever Yimi Garcia has already been traded to the Mariners. Starter Yusei Kikuchi and the aforementioned Turner are among the candidates to change hands. That'll bring back some modest returns in terms of prospects. It's also not sufficient for a team in Toronto's situation.
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I love the idea of moving Guerrero now. He’s finally returned to being a good hitter and could bring something good back. Bo is probably better moved in the off-season when he’s not sidelined by injury,
Toronto are a top five payroll team and how many times have we seen the Dodgers, yankees, etc rebuild and sell off all their players. I haven’t so why would anyone want Toronto to sell off their best players unless they are ignorant and irresponsible. Toronto spend 300 million every year on players with the exchange rate. They have a top-notch pitching staff, an all star first baseman, they had a decent bullpen until injuries decimated it and instead of signing Garcia, he is now a Mariner. Atkins is incompetent and a real GM would look at the team and make changes where they are needed. Bichette has been playing on one leg, due to his calf muscle from 2023, but no one mentions it. They want him traded where another team will benefit. The Jays are auditioning young players to find the players worth keeping, but again, most fans and writers want everyone traded. Did the Yankees trade Stanton and Judge in 2023 due to missing the playoffs, the answer is NO, so why should the Jays eject players. Prospects coming back are 99,9 percent assured of failure – NOT success so trading known players is futile and irresponsible. The Jays are a top five payroll team and it is time to eject the front office and act like they are responsible.
It’s because the Jays 2 best players aren’t as good as other teams top two players. Yanks, Dodgers, Phillies, Astros, padres, orioles, guardians. The list goes on. And now you have other teams with younger better players like the Royals, Reds, pirates etc..
The Jays were always trying to build a winner behind 2 great players but not 2 superstars
The blue jays are not the Yankees
Guerrero has publicly said he would not oppose a trade to the Yankees which in so many words is saying he would be willing to get traded
The main thing is that he’s going to free agency after 2025 and since the jays need a reset he would get too old before they get good again on a huge deal so this is the perfect time to make a trade with 1 and a third seasons of Guerrero left
You said this and I quote: “The main thing is that he’s going to free agency after 2025 and since the jays need a reset he would get too old before they get good again.” In other words, you are writing off the Jays for the next ten years as never being good again, because Vlad is only 25, NOT 35 and if the team doesn’t contend in ten years, fire management and replace them with someone that isn’t incompetent.
Toronto may have spent money on pitching and George Springer, but they’ve failed to extend Guerrero thus far and really to build a core of position players with any identity at all. With his lack of an extension for this long it doesn’t seem they are planning to keep Vlad around.
That doesn’t sound like a team with deep pockets who can avoid a rebuild- it sounds like an impending financial implosion a la the Tigers ten years ago.
The Blue Jays are a mess and would be wise to trade away their veteran pitching at least for a solid rebuild.
Additionally, I must say that “prospects coming back are 99.9% assured of failure” is the worst take I have ever heard. Where do all these great players in the league come from then?? Jeff Bagwell for some forgettable veteran and Randy Arozarena for some forgotten names come to mind- there are certainly many more successful prospect trades than this.
Please show me where the Blue Jays have graduated players that became superstars. Only Vlad and Bo come to mind and no one else, hence 99.9% of the Jays players have failed. I’m not talking about other teams, just the Jays.
What does that have to do with making trades for prospects now?? You don’t know what you are getting. Also, while Bichette and Guerrero are definitely considered stars at this point, we don’t know Manoah’s future either, among others like Kirk. But that’s not even the point- This is not an excuse not to make trades while the market is hot! You don’t know what you might get- maybe the next Arozarena.
There is no order to this team as is and they have little chance to contend this year. With the massive return for Kikuchi, best to flip the other veteran starters for big returns right now. Bassitt to Padres, Gausman to Dodgers would be ideal.
Worry about acquiring more veterans in the offseason, and better luck in the future.
Clinging to a roster that at best will compete for a third wildcard one more year is not a smart way to manage. This team has a high payroll but that doesn’t mean it’s built to win.
the difference between the jays and the yankees in that situation is that the yankees have judge and stanton on a long term contract. unless the jays can get bo and guerrero signed, they need to trade them.. they cannot risk just letting those 2 go to free agency while not even making the playoffs. idling you way towards those two hitting free agency is not the right move. and the longer they stay on the team/the closer they get closer to free agency, the less likely it is that they will sign an extension.
the team needs to decide if they’re going to re-sign those 2. if so they need to get that done asap otherwise those two need to be traded. the reason people are telling the jays to sell isn’t necessarily because they want bo and vlad gone, it’s because they have no faith in the organization to be able to re-sign them. therefore, they need to be traded sooner rather than later. this management already completely messed up the donaldson trade, they can’t afford to do the same thing with these two players.
Move anything and anybody – just don’t let Atkins/Shapiro make any more decisions for this team….wake up ROGERS!
Toronto probably has Theo Epstein on speed dial the moment they pull the trigger on atkins and Shapiro
It is a management problem that does not work, waiting for so many years for nothing, the only baseball team in Canada and they do not make the necessary efforts. What was the hire last year to improve the offense?
now they hit less…
Right. Every year the offence gets worse. Now the pitching is getting worse too. Now this is a non competitive last place team. Best outfield in baseball though…
As a fan that went to 30+ games during a time said team lost 300+ games, tanking sucks. But getting top notch prospects and getting to watch them come up and dominate A level, A+, AA and AAA, and being able to see wave after wave come up was probably the highlight of my baseball fandom.
Having said that, I would idiotically trade you Springer for Jake Meyers right now! George is just a good dude, and I miss him…
Until shapiro and his useless GM atkins are releived of duties, sooner the better…Our Jays will immediately become a better team…
The RESET has to be clearing out garbage in the FO…..starting at the top…..