2025 Trade Deadline

[Spanky__99]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

Agreed. Imagine being upset about us dumping a corner outfielder and infielder combining for a grand total of ONE home run in about 250 ABs lmao.

Plus one of them is a nepo baby who skipped important games in the middle of a pennant chase to go party with his dad for a weekend.

GOOD RIDDANCE

 

You're the best dude, lmao. 

[mphenhef]

2 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Hope people realize that many good/great players struggle in their first stint in the big leagues.  Its how they go down and come back up is what usually defines their careers. 

Roden was fast tracked to the big league team due to the team really needing some offensive output.  It just happened to come from Barger who was in his position last year.  

It's extremely early to write anything off about him regardless of his age. There was a reason why the organization was salivating over him during Spring Trainining. 

I'm sorry but a 25 year old is not fast tracked.  He had 71 games at AAA.

[sliderguy35]

very funny that atkins says he likes the fastball shape since it's probably the most middling thing about the pitch and the reason it doesn't really play up as an elite pitch at that velo.

49 minutes ago, jmomcc said:

I really think the bat will play with Roden. Like Kwan has run a sub 3% barrell rate in the majors and his bat plays. I just think he will walk and not strike out, and has enough pop to play in a corner. He also is athletic enough to be an above average defender. Over seven years of control, you'll get a smattering of 1.5 -3 WAR seasons. That's valuable to me. 

kwan is a crazy comp. he's the best defender in baseball at his position, never run a SwSTR% more than 4% in the minors, makes contact at a 90% rate & elevates the ball, complete outlier guy.

roden's at a 7% SwStr, just over 80% contact and hits a ton of groundballs. much more likely to be the LF version of bryson stott or a gavin lux if he was a good defender. still a guy who can play in the bigs, but is mainly strong-side platoon limited & isn't going to be racking up the WAR with only 400 PAs per year

[jmomcc]

40 minutes ago, sliderguy35 said:

very funny that atkins says he likes the fastball shape since it's probably the most middling thing about the pitch and the reason it doesn't really play up as an elite pitch at that velo.

kwan is a crazy comp. he's the best defender in baseball at his position, never run a SwSTR% more than 4% in the minors, makes contact at a 90% rate & elevates the ball, complete outlier guy.

roden's at a 7% SwStr, just over 80% contact and hits a ton of groundballs. much more likely to be the LF version of bryson stott or a gavin lux if he was a good defender. still a guy who can play in the bigs, but is mainly strong-side platoon limited & isn't going to be racking up the WAR with only 400 PAs per year

4% vs 7% swinging strike. Just over 80% contact rate vs 90% contact. Roden has more power potential because his max ev is 112mph, well above Kwan. So, if a team can get him lifting the ball more... that seems like a good player. I didn't say he would defend like Kwan. I said he can play above average corner outfield defense. That's it. 

We'll see. 

 

Edit: maybe he just said he liked the fastball not specifically the shape? 

[mellowgold2]

Did Ross specifically say they're gonna try Varland as a starter next year, or are we just assuming?

[metafour]

1 hour ago, jmomcc said:

4% vs 7% swinging strike. Just over 80% contact rate vs 90% contact. Roden has more power potential because his max ev is 112mph, well above Kwan. So, if a team can get him lifting the ball more... that seems like a good player. 

Those differences are significant when you are looking at an outlier player (Kwan) and what makes him good.

sliderguy is correct: a big difference is that Kwan ran much lower GB/FB rates throughout the minors, which translated to the majors. He was also much younger and blew through AA and AAA at age 23, so he was well ahead of Roden on the development curve.

Again, the big problem with Roden is how many balls he hits into the dirt. Steven Kwan does NOT have that problem. If you look at Kwan, his worst season offensively (2023 - 99 wRC+) just so happens to be his season with the highest GB/FB rate (1.51). And this 1.51 GB/FB rate is still considerably below even the AAA numbers of Roden. Roden was running a 1.83 GB/FB rate against MLB pitchers this season.

The whole "well just teach him to elevate the ball" thing is much harder than people think. Josh Kasevich has the same problem and he didn't magically learn how to lift the ball either.

We complain about Guerrero when he is running ~1.45 GB/FB rates, and Roden is considerably higher than that.

[Terminator]

14 minutes ago, mellowgold2 said:

Did Ross specifically say they're gonna try Varland as a starter next year, or are we just assuming?

He said that they could consider it but he would talk to Varland about it after the year. My general feeling was that it was an option but unlikely.

[Jonn]

Mariners look like a f***ing unit now. That's a squad that's set up to win a World Series. Certainly the team to beat the AL now.

[Brownie19]

4 hours ago, Terminator said:

He said that they could consider it but he would talk to Varland about it after the year. My general feeling was that it was an option but unlikely.

I got the same impression...

[Perfect Game]

This whole argument is pointless. This trade is a wash. They both put up zeros tonight 😜

[Stangstag]

3 hours ago, Jonn said:

Mariners look like a f***ing unit now. That's a squad that's set up to win a World Series. Certainly the team to beat the AL now.

Im ready to lose to the Mariners again. This time in the DS though 

[mphenhef]

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, mphenhef said:

Lawlll every one of their new guys s*** the bed and they lost 13-12. Love it

[Stangstag]

Also Caballero made an error in the 9th that cost them the game rofl

[Terminator]

2 hours ago, mphenhef said:

[Terminator]

 

[Laika]

8 hours ago, mphenhef said:

Incredible 

[Ball4Life]

Anyone have a link to the Atkins press conference post deadline?

[hanton]

46 minutes ago, Ball4Life said:

Anyone have a link to the Atkins press conference post deadline?

https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/video/ross-atkins-discusses-blue-jays-trade-deadline-moves

Full

https://www.cp24.com/video/2025/07/31/feel-really-good-about-accomplishing-our-goals-blue-jays-gm-on-trade-deadline-moves/

[Jonn]

Bednar is obviously very good. Most of the time. But he has always been known for his epic meltdowns. He returned to form this Season. But last Season his ERA was ballooned due to some of the epic meltdowns he had just last Season.

He will probably end up being pretty good for the Yankees. But for the people who are concerned about which Jeff Hoffman we were going to get and thought David Bednar was the solution to that problem well now see why the grass isn't always greener on the other side lol.

[Ball4Life]

2 hours ago, hanton said:

https://www.mlb.com/bluejays/video/ross-atkins-discusses-blue-jays-trade-deadline-moves

Full

https://www.cp24.com/video/2025/07/31/feel-really-good-about-accomplishing-our-goals-blue-jays-gm-on-trade-deadline-moves/

Thank you!

[Carlos Danger]

Ok, I have been MIA on travel and different time zones etc..  I think I have my feet on the ground a little now. 

Any Gen X guys remember the where's the Beef commercials!?

Where is the bat???  Are we assuming that all our guys that have had a quarter positive performance and are journeyman types are going to sustain into the playoffs against the best pitching...

 

[Masterbather]

4 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

Ok, I have been MIA on travel and different time zones etc..  I think I have my feet on the ground a little now. 

Any Gen X guys remember the where's the Beef commercials!?

Where is the bat???  Are we assuming that all our guys that have had a quarter positive performance and are journeyman types are going to sustain into the playoffs against the best pitching...

 

Springer, Guerrero, Bichette, Kirk, Barger

There are your damage bats.

Varsho, Gimenez can give you some left-handed hitting but are everyday players because of their elite defense up the middle.

We probably won't have Santander, and that's unfortunate, but at worst, if otherwise healthy, we are filling in only a couple of spots with platoon options. Decent platoon options. Is that any worse than most lineups in baseball?

Yeah I know a right-handed power bat would have been nice, but we don't have the deepest system and we prioritized what we really needed more.

[Grant77]

48 minutes ago, Carlos Danger said:

Ok, I have been MIA on travel and different time zones etc..  I think I have my feet on the ground a little now. 

Any Gen X guys remember the where's the Beef commercials!?

Where is the bat???  Are we assuming that all our guys that have had a quarter positive performance and are journeyman types are going to sustain into the playoffs against the best pitching...

 

If you believe Atkins, they didn't really want a bat. He said that we were able to complete in every level of the market and that we were able to accomplish our goals. 

We paid more for Varland than the Yankees paid for Bednar or Doval and I kind of get it, given the control, but I would have preferred a more elite reliever on a shorter term. 

Bieber and Dominguez are the type of moves that people wanted and expected. We'll have to reserve judgment until Bieber actually starts. I think people rendering a verdict on that deal already are a little foolish.

[John_Havok]

14 hours ago, Grant77 said:

If you believe Atkins, they didn't really want a bat. He said that we were able to complete in every level of the market and that we were able to accomplish our goals. 

We paid more for Varland than the Yankees paid for Bednar or Doval and I kind of get it, given the control, but I would have preferred a more elite reliever on a shorter term. 

Bieber and Dominguez are the type of moves that people wanted and expected. We'll have to reserve judgment until Bieber actually starts. I think people rendering a verdict on that deal already are a little foolish.

Regarding Bieber, yeah. All we can really say about it is...we can see the reasoning and logic behind the move, and I thinkkot was a good gamble given the marketplace, but who knows how it turns out.

I give that trade an A in process, but results might be different 

[metafour]

Khal Stephen apparently has a "minor" shoulder impingement. Same injury that Bowden Francis is dealing with and that Yimi Garcia had.

Bieber is obviously a calculated risk, but Khal Stephens' injury makes it a risk/upside play for Cleveland as well. They didn't acquire a healthy pitcher.

[Spanky__99]

36 minutes ago, metafour said:

Khal Stephen apparently has a "minor" shoulder impingement. Same injury that Bowden Francis is dealing with and that Yimi Garcia had.

Bieber is obviously a calculated risk, but Khal Stephens' injury makes it a risk/upside play for Cleveland as well. They didn't acquire a healthy pitcher.

Where'd you read that, interesting?

[Grant77]

2 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

Where'd you read that, interesting?

He was placed on the minor league IL with that injury on July 24th.

[Spanky__99]

7 minutes ago, Grant77 said:

He was placed on the minor league IL with that injury on July 24th.

Thanks G-man... found it now.

[jmomcc]

On 8/1/2025 at 2:55 PM, metafour said:

Those differences are significant when you are looking at an outlier player (Kwan) and what makes him good.

sliderguy is correct: a big difference is that Kwan ran much lower GB/FB rates throughout the minors, which translated to the majors. He was also much younger and blew through AA and AAA at age 23, so he was well ahead of Roden on the development curve.

Again, the big problem with Roden is how many balls he hits into the dirt. Steven Kwan does NOT have that problem. If you look at Kwan, his worst season offensively (2023 - 99 wRC+) just so happens to be his season with the highest GB/FB rate (1.51). And this 1.51 GB/FB rate is still considerably below even the AAA numbers of Roden. Roden was running a 1.83 GB/FB rate against MLB pitchers this season.

The whole "well just teach him to elevate the ball" thing is much harder than people think. Josh Kasevich has the same problem and he didn't magically learn how to lift the ball either.

We complain about Guerrero when he is running ~1.45 GB/FB rates, and Roden is considerably higher than that.

There is zero evidence that Guerroro has ever tried to do so. He has been essentially the same hitter the entire time (which is excellent). The results mostly depend on luck. 

Teams have taught hitters to go get the ball more. Its just not something the jays emphasize. If anything we emphasize the other way.