max silver

Oh come on it's not nearly that grim yet. Springer should hopefully be able to have the elbow issue addressed in the offseason and be in better shape for 2023. His lower half/core injuries of last year haven't appeared to be an issue this season so I suspect the elbow will likely not be a big issue next season either.

Heading into the the deadline I really didn't have the feeling that major acquisitions were needed. My wish list was bullpen help first, back end of the rotation/depth starter second, better quality left handed bat last. The first need has been addressed, we shall see what the final two hours bring with regards to patching up the other holes on the team.

I quickly crunched the WAR numbers for the Jays pen after the recent Bass and Pop acquisitions for comparison sake to a few other great bullpens. I took the top 7 guys from the Braves and Orioles pen and compared to the top 7 guys of the new improved Jays pen. The Braves have an elite pen. Their top 7 relievers total up to 6.1 WAR. The Orioles top 7 relievers (before trading away Lopez) total up to 5.2 WAR. After today's acquisitions the Jays pen top 7 guys totals up to 4.7 WAR. Bringing Bass and Pop aboard removes crap like Richards, Banda, Beasley etc. from the pen and replaces them with guys who can reliably retire MLB hitters.

Hopefully Richards is removed from that list as soon as Pop and Bass report to the team.

After the Bass and Pop acquisitions I'm not so sure there's room or a need for Robertson anymore.

If Springer could actually play center field full time that would also be great.

Given what Bass has accomplished in 2022 I would have zero issues with handing him the ball in that type of situation. He has two elite pitches including a slider that induces a 40.7% whiff rate. It appears as though his slider usage has increased as the season went on. He has been k'ing a ton of batters in July at 11.2 K/9. I checked out his game logs, and this has been going on since near the end of June. Since June 21 he has been on a tear, 0.51 ERA/1.42 FIP, 10.7 K/9, 0 home runs allowed. My major complaint at the last few deadlines is that the front office has acquired guys who were having shaky seasons and were basically reclamation projects, this season they have attained a guy who is trending upwards as the season goes on.

Garcia has largely been excellent this season but it seems like a lot of people are slow to recognize this fact. His k rate is not exciting but has been increasing as the season goes on. Both Garcia and Bass have been been extremely hard to square up this season and this directly ties into their ability to keep the opposition off the board. Bass has legitimately been a top reliever in all of MLB this season and is a massive upgrade for this team. Go look at his statcast page, check out Fangraphs leaderboards for relievers as well. He's been borderline elite, makes next to nothing salary wise, and has another year of control. There's really nothing not to like about this acquisition.

I recall Bass was a very effective reliever for the club in 2020 during the covid shortened season.

Pop has legit stuff and Bass has been MLB's 7th most valuable reliever by FWAR this season. Their value in the offseason is irrelevant when it comes time to upgrade a roster at the trade deadline. Groshans has produced an 82 WRC+ in AAA this season, he obviously has very little trade value at this point and this wasn't likely to improve moving forward, might as well cash in an extra piece for a massive overall upgrade to the pen.

Even if he doesn't maximize his slider potential Pop still looks like a flamethrowing version of Adam Cimber with tons of remaining control. This is a very nice pickup for this season with potential to be a massive get in the future.

Pop shows how limited the actual utility of these stuff metrics can be at times. Pop's slider looks good to a stuff metric but hasn't played the way you would expect as he's given up a .606 WOBA/.520 xWOBA and only induced a 12.5% whiff rate.

Yeah looks like he needs to work on developing a more effective secondary pitch as his repertoire has no swing and miss right now. Upper 90's wormburner inducing sinker is a nice starting point though.

Go take a look at what Bass has been doing this season. This move is a little under the radar but Bass might actually be one of the most effective relievers moved this at the deadline. A 1.41 ERA/2.79 xERA/2.06 FIP/1.4 FWAR reliever is a massive upgrade to the Jays pen.

This trade really upgrades the Jays pen to a large degree. Pop looks like a pitch to contact guy but he has a huge sinker. Bass is in the midst of a monster season and arguably becomes the bullpen's best reliever. It's too bad Groshans has turned into a pumpkin in the upper minors but he's largely become expendable.

Looks like Groshans trade value has really cratered with the season he's had. 82 WRC+ in AAA certainly isn't very inspiring.

Hopefully he's turned a corner after his injured list stint. It sounds like the club completely overhauled his mechanics so time will tell if the signing produces any value or not.

Just replace the carrot with something more enticing like a cheeseburger or whatever.

Yeah Barriera already has premium stuff straight out of high school, but even incremental improvements would be huge for a player this talented.

Tiedemann is up to 41 on Keith Law's midseason list as well. He looks like a surefire keeper at this point and nowhere close to somebody you'd move out for a non elite return.

An impact left handed bat would be nice to have for sure, but who should come out of the lineup to facilitate this type of addition? There haven't been a lot of available names listed that fit this team. Happ would be a nice get but Gurriel and Teoscar have both been mashing for several months. Josh Bell has had a great season but Kirk has been the team's most productive hitter as a whole and Vlad is the most talented hitter on the team so I can't see taking either of these guys out of the lineup.

This is just so well thought out and eloquently stated that you've convinced me that Bo should immediately be designated for assignment.

I have very little concern over the club missing the playoffs, however there will be plenty of blame to go around if the Jays miss the post season. You could certainly argue Bo's underperformance would be a factor, but getting essentially nothing out of Ryu, Pearson missing most of the season yet again, undermanned bullpen, George Springer's body breaking down again and Danny Jansen missing a huge chunk of time will all be equally as important if not more so.

Barriera isn't supposed to have a lot of remaining projection, but I'm still curious to see how he responds to a professional strength and nutrition program. The stuff already sounds top notch but even squeezing out a little more from him would be tremendous.

Three Jays prospects made it onto Keith Law's midseason top 60 list. 5. Gabriel Moreno, C, Toronto Blue Jays Previous ranking: No. 6 There’s no real reason for Moreno to be on this list, when he should be in the majors – the Blue Jays optioned him because they activated Danny Jansen from the injured list and already have Alejandro Kirk in the midst of a huge breakout season. In almost any other organization, Moreno would be in the big leagues, as he played well in his brief stint with Toronto and doesn’t have much to learn in Triple A. At this writing, he’s had a hit in every game since the demotion, and continues to make a ton of contact. He’s hitting more groundballs this year than before, with less power, but even as an 8-to-12 homer guy with high OBPs and plus defense, including at least a 70 arm, he projects as a longtime regular who’ll make some All-Star teams. 41. Ricky Tiedemann, LHP, Toronto Blue Jays Previous ranking: Unranked Tiedemann has been up to 100 mph this year and sits in the mid to upper 90s with an above-average to plus changeup and above-average slider. He starts on the extreme first base side of the rubber and finishes a bit on that side too, so left-handers get a horrendous look at the ball. And he’s dominated batters on both sides. He’s supposedly headed for Double-A New Hampshire, where his below-average command will be better tested, but hasn’t pitched anywhere since July 8. 49. Yosver Zulueta, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays Previous ranking: Unranked Zulueta threw all of one pitch in the Futures Game, so yay for that, but he’s emerged from nearly three lost years as a four-pitch starter who mostly needs to build up his workload. Zulueta defected after the 2018-19 offseason, ended up having Tommy John surgery and suffered a season-ending knee injury in his first outing back in 2021. His outings this year have been short, but he’s been up to 100 mph with improvement to both his slider and curveball, while he needs to throw his changeup more consistently for strikes. If he can handle the workload, he’s a mid-rotation guy at least, while he could also help the big club as a reliever right now.