An Early Look At The Blue Jays' Trade Deadline Needs

[jmomcc]

1 minute ago, jaysblue said:

If the Jays are 5 GB of WC3, I don't think they go on a huge shopping spree to go "all-in" for 2026. More likely target players with some control beyond 2026, who could help next season and who might be able to help down the stretch if they still felt like they could contend.

Even if the Jays sold off on some pieces on expiring contracts, given how weak the AL is, they could still potentially sneak into the last WC spot if they started playing better in August/September - kind of like how Cleveland were sellers at the deadline last season and they ended up winning their division. 

 

 

I would say the kind of buy and sell middle ground that teams like the rays and brewers do is just not something this front office has ever been comfortable doing .

[Spanky__99]

Tips...

[Bryan Jaeger]

On 6/26/2026 at 12:49 PM, Brownie19 said:

What is Beeter doing that you like him?  6.66 BB/9, 4.54 xFIP, velo down, K's down

I like that Beeter is a groundball pitcher, ranking in the 99th percentile (60.7%), and he's holding batters to a .169 batting average. Also, when runners get on base, he has a 80% left-on-base rate. Looking at his arsenal, his 4-seam fastball is where he's getting in trouble, but hitters are batting .102 off of his slider, and have a 34.8% whiff rate.

He throws these pitches at rates of 54% and 46%, respectively. Yeah, he's not the prettiest target to acquire, but is under team control through 2031 and has some appealing stuff. Plus, he's been throwing late in games in high-leverage situations. So he'd have a less stressful workload pitching in the middle innings for the Blue Jays.

[Bryan Jaeger]

On 6/27/2026 at 8:05 AM, gruber9292 said:

If Atkins trades King or Parker, the fans should boycott. I would trade Nimmala/Stanifer before those two. 

I have a bad feeling we'll see a situation like last year when the Blue Jays traded Khal Stephen for Shane Bieber, regarding King, if the Blue Jays are aggressive buyers. I'd assume Parker and Nimmala are untouchable. 

[jaysblue]

5 minutes ago, Bryan Jaeger said:

I like that Beeter is a groundball pitcher, ranking in the 99th percentile (60.7%), and he's holding batters to a .169 batting average. Also, when runners get on base, he has a 80% left-on-base rate. Looking at his arsenal, his 4-seam fastball is where he's getting in trouble, but hitters are batting .102 off of his slider, and have a 34.8% whiff rate.

He throws these pitches at rates of 54% and 46%, respectively. Yeah, he's not the prettiest target to acquire, but is under team control through 2031 and has some appealing stuff. Plus, he's been throwing late in games in high-leverage situations. So he'd have a less stressful workload pitching in the middle innings for the Blue Jays.

Beeter is the type of arm who you hope could figure things out and if he does, especially his BB/9, I think he could be a valuable late inning reliever. 

Numbers wise this season, he hasn't been that sharp: 6.39 BB/9, 4.33xFIP and O fWAR accumulated. He would be more of a long term project than an impact arm that would help this season. 

[Bob_Gratton]

15 hours ago, Stangstag said:

I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a fan in that section that can even name 3 blue jays not named Vlad.

Some will name McKenna, Mathews and Barnes😄

[Buster]

They are making the decision to sell easy, at least. 

[glory]

If the Jays are going to stink this season then I'd rather they just collapse rather than hang around the fringes of WC3. This team should absolutely not be buyers as constructed. They are bad offensively and middle of the pack at best on the pitching side. There is nothing to suggest this is a good team that is underachieving, but if they stay close enough, even while below .500, then they'll want to go for it given how successful 2025 was. Just sell, maybe you get lucky and go on a run anyway given how weak the AL is, and go from there. 

Gausman and Varsho seem like the only ones who'd have significant value. Bieber has missed a large part of the season. If the CBA wasn't expiring I'd say just hold on to him and qualify him after the season if he looked better in the 2nd half, but the CBA stuff makes that a bit dicey. Springer is a 10/5 guy so he has a full NTC. Not like he'd have a big market anyway, probably just the Astros since that's the type of move Dana Brown would definitely make.

Either way, sell and play the younger guys down the stretch. Buying, unless it's someone who is controllable, would be a mistake. 

[Governator]

I wouldn't move any future to improve this team, just sell off any low hanging fruit and move on.

16 hours ago, glory said:

If the Jays are going to stink this season then I'd rather they just collapse rather than hang around the fringes of WC3. This team should absolutely not be buyers as constructed. They are bad offensively and middle of the pack at best on the pitching side. There is nothing to suggest this is a good team that is underachieving, but if they stay close enough, even while below .500, then they'll want to go for it given how successful 2025 was. Just sell, maybe you get lucky and go on a run anyway given how weak the AL is, and go from there. 

Gausman and Varsho seem like the only ones who'd have significant value. Bieber has missed a large part of the season. If the CBA wasn't expiring I'd say just hold on to him and qualify him after the season if he looked better in the 2nd half, but the CBA stuff makes that a bit dicey. Springer is a 10/5 guy so he has a full NTC. Not like he'd have a big market anyway, probably just the Astros since that's the type of move Dana Brown would definitely make.

Either way, sell and play the younger guys down the stretch. Buying, unless it's someone who is controllable, would be a mistake. 

 

I agree 100% and also every expiring contract should be considered for sale.

Springer/Gausman/Varsho/Bieber.  Could still slide into a WC spot with a .500 season and fresh faces.

 

[jaysblue]

4 minutes ago, Governator said:

I wouldn't move any future to improve this team, just sell off any low hanging fruit and move on.

 

I agree 100% and also every expiring contract should be considered for sale.

Springer/Gausman/Varsho/Bieber.  Could still slide into a WC spot with a .500 season and fresh faces.

 

Yeah, it happened with Cleveland last year after the deadline. They moved expiring contracts. Detroit did something similar the year before, too.

Maybe this team/roster just needs a bit of a shakeup. Some new faces in the clubhouse might click, spark the group a little, and maybe they go on a run and compete for WC3. It’s obviously not working with the current group anyway.

You’re not really going to miss Springer at this point. Varsho’s defensive skills have declined, and in the short term, he shouldn’t be that difficult to replace. Gausman and Bieber are a different story, because replacing those innings while still trying to contend would be tough. But maybe you get some young arms back who can step into the rotation right away and help fill the void - someone like Carmen Mlodzinski, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, etc.

[Orgfiller]

On 6/27/2026 at 9:05 AM, gruber9292 said:

If Atkins trades King or Parker, the fans should boycott. I would trade Nimmala/Stanifer before those two. 

lol @ boycotting over trading a teenage pitcher that hasn't made it past A+ and probably won't reach 100 IP in a season yet at the end of 2026.

[Orgfiller]

20 hours ago, Bryan Jaeger said:

I have a bad feeling we'll see a situation like last year when the Blue Jays traded Khal Stephen for Shane Bieber, regarding King, if the Blue Jays are aggressive buyers. I'd assume Parker and Nimmala are untouchable. 

Khal Stephen had a pretty mediocre start to the season for Cleveland in AA and is now undergoing TJS. Don't think he's hugely missed by the FO as things stand.

[Bryan Jaeger]

2 hours ago, Orgfiller said:

Khal Stephen had a pretty mediocre start to the season for Cleveland in AA and is now undergoing TJS. Don't think he's hugely missed by the FO as things stand.

Yeah, hindsight, it looks good for the Blue Jays, but at the time, there were mixed reactions to trading a top 5 prospect for a player that we didn't know how he'd recover from TJS, Plus, it was unexpected for Bieber to accept his player option.

[Terminator]

 

Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game!

[Bob_Gratton]

On 6/28/2026 at 5:11 PM, glory said:

If the Jays are going to stink this season then I'd rather they just collapse rather than hang around the fringes of WC3. This team should absolutely not be buyers as constructed. They are bad offensively and middle of the pack at best on the pitching side. There is nothing to suggest this is a good team that is underachieving, but if they stay close enough, even while below .500, then they'll want to go for it given how successful 2025 was. Just sell, maybe you get lucky and go on a run anyway given how weak the AL is, and go from there. 

Gausman and Varsho seem like the only ones who'd have significant value. Bieber has missed a large part of the season. If the CBA wasn't expiring I'd say just hold on to him and qualify him after the season if he looked better in the 2nd half, but the CBA stuff makes that a bit dicey. Springer is a 10/5 guy so he has a full NTC. Not like he'd have a big market anyway, probably just the Astros since that's the type of move Dana Brown would definitely make.

Either way, sell and play the younger guys down the stretch. Buying, unless it's someone who is controllable, would be a mistake. 

Bieber, Garcia, Springer are finished players, so they will bring nothing good. Jays will probably need to pay to get rid of them, they have the values of a DFA 

[Bob_Gratton]

On 6/29/2026 at 12:33 PM, Bryan Jaeger said:

Yeah, hindsight, it looks good for the Blue Jays, but at the time, there were mixed reactions to trading a top 5 prospect for a player that we didn't know how he'd recover from TJS, Plus, it was unexpected for Bieber to accept his player option.

Coaching staff need be replaced, no just JS, coz it's no normal Jays have so many pitchers with injuries, and players out of shape like Vlad, Kirk

[Bob_Gratton]

On 6/28/2026 at 2:06 PM, Bryan Jaeger said:

I have a bad feeling we'll see a situation like last year when the Blue Jays traded Khal Stephen for Shane Bieber, regarding King, if the Blue Jays are aggressive buyers. I'd assume Parker and Nimmala are untouchable. 

Stephen had good trade values last year, the problem is that Atkins traded him for Bieber. Instead he can have get a very good bullpen arm.