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If Bo is retained the club isn't forced to keep him at short stop if he eventually proves to be incapable of playing the position.

I don't think we necessarily have much of a read on Bo's financial priorities. My take on why he turned the pre-arb raise was a bit of a mild protest due to his inherent dislike of the system vs an indication that he is chasing max dollars. He's been saying a lot of encouraging things publicly about wanting to remain a Blue Jay long term to finish his career with Vlad, has been much more vocal this season about how much he's enjoying himself, and there was recent chatter about Bo and the team undergoing extension discussions so I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he were willing to sign more of a mutually beneficial extension offer vs attempting to squeeze maximum millions from the organization such as Vlad did.

I have the same line of thinking. I'll fully admit I'm growing weary of the constant barrage of derogatory $500 million man every time Vlad has a bad game or makes a mistake on the field. I too am encouraged by the improvements he's made defensively and on the bases, albeit with the occasional blunder mixed in. I don't think we've seen peak Vlad yet either, as I believe he carries the requisite talent to potentially take over from Aaron Judge as MLB's best hitter once he hits his peak/prime and Judge starts to slow down at the plate. I think if Vlad can finally find a way to lock in the "A" power swing at the plate from day 1 in the season there is MVP potential in this player, but given the inconsistency he's shown from season to season it's far from guaranteed that will ever occur.

I don't think Vlad is ever going to fully live up to the total price tag as the deal is far too long. Having said that a 4 win season isn't that out of line as compared to the average annual $35 million price tag, so I don't see a lot of value in fretting over the total contract value when Vlad is having a pretty decent season despite the lower power output. If a free agency win is valued at around $9 million and Vlad produces a 4 season that's $36 million worth of value and Vlad is earning his salary, just without much in the way of surplus value to mitigate what will likely be an ugly back half of his contract.

Yeah unfortunately Vlad has terrible instincts on the bases so the occasional baserunning blunder is par for the course. Despite the lower power output he's been quietly having a really good season. It took him a few weeks to hit his first home run this season, and his overall numbers from that point to present are really damn good. He's been playing at a 5+ win pace since the middle of April and that's without him ever fully locking in the power stroke at the plate. # Name Team G PA HR R RBI SB BB% K% ISO BABIP AVG OBP SLG wOBA xwOBA wRC+ BsR Off Def WAR 1 Alejandro Kirk TOR 75 293 6 23 43 0 9.2% 9.2% .111 .332 .317 .379 .427 .352 127 -4.8 4.3 16.5 3.2 2 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. TOR 85 376 14 63 46 5 14.1% 14.1% .192 .319 .297 .404 .489 .385 149 -0.6 21.0 -8.0 2.7 3 Ernie Clement TOR 86 336 5 46 26 2 4.8% 8.9% .113 .307 .293 .325 .405 .317 102 1.5 2.3 7.9 2.3 4 Addison Barger TOR 80 298 14 44 47 3 7.0% 24.2% .244 .323 .273 .327 .516 .356 130 0.0 10.3 0.6 2.2 5 George Springer TOR 83 342 16 58 46 10 12.9% 17.5% .219 .298 .278 .374 .497 .376 143 1.8 18.9 -11.8 2.0 6 Bo Bichette TOR 84 375 13 43 53 4 5.3% 15.7% .187 .301 .278 .317 .465 .336 116 -1.1 5.7 -0.1 1.9 7 Nathan Lukes TOR 67 218 7 26 34 1 10.6% 12.4% .150 .299 .283 .363 .433 .347 123 -0.3 5.5 -0.5 1.3 8 Tyler Heineman TOR 31 83 2 14 12 1 7.2% 21.7% .145 .353 .290 .370 .435 .353 127 0.7 3.3 6.3 1.3 9 Davis Schneider TOR 30 85 5 14 11 0 15.3% 25.9% .254 .273 .239 .365 .493 .373 141 0.0 4.1 -0.3 0.7 10 Daulton Varsho TOR 24 100 8 14 20 1 5.0% 31.0% .337 .196 .207 .240 .543 .318 103 -0.1 0.2 2.3 0.6 11 Joey Loperfido TOR 14 43 2 4 7 1 7.0% 18.6% .179 .414 .359 .419 .538 .416 171 0.1 3.6 0.5 0.6 12 Andrés Giménez TOR 43 162 2 13 15 5 4.9% 14.8% .068 .250 .219 .292 .288 .265 67 1.0 -5.3 4.2 0.5 13 Myles Straw TOR 73 172 0 25 14 6 5.2% 15.7% .051 .262 .218 .263 .269 .240 49 1.7 -8.6 4.9 0.2 14 Will Wagner TOR 22 69 0 10 4 1 10.1% 18.8% .083 .362 .283 .377 .367 .336 115 0.1 1.3 -1.8 0.2

I had a good feeling heading into this game that the Jays would at least be able to run up Skubal's pitch count and get into the Tigers pen. Bo had a huge at bat to run up his pitch count, and if it weren't for a few unfortunate baserunning mistakes the Jays may have piled up some runs against a really dominant arm in a game where he had great stuff. This bodes really well for the playoffs when the pitching tightens up. I certainly wouldn't have guessed that Gausman would have outpitched MLB's best starter, and if he can keep something approximating his last few starts up for the rest of the season that would be massive.

That might force a doubleheader for tomorrow which would not be a good thing. At best it would push back the Skubal matchup a day so just prolonging the inevitable.

This Blue Jays squad has been making life miserable for a lot of high shelf starters recently so hopefully they can at least get Skubal's pitch count up to get him out of the game a little sooner.

Both of Roden and Loperfido are controllable outfielders who are nearly fully formed/MLB ready, so perhaps a package that includes one of them in addition to a prospect package could be of interest to the Padres.

If Cease is actually available I believe he would represent the Blue Jays best chance to acquire a front of the rotation arm. I'm sure I would hate the prospect cost but I do believe the Blue Jays have enough depth in the system to make the Padres a very compelling offer without completely wiping out the top end of the system. I like Bader as a target a lot for the Jays. He would largely make Straw expendable and provide the team with a really solid bench bat who could play everyday when required and not hurt the team in the slightest.

I think that's ultimately wiser vs paying a premium for controllable relievers. The Blue Jays have been proving themselves to be astute at converting scrap heap and low cost trade acquisitions into very effective relievers so I don't see an overwhelming need to send out a lot of prospect value for the pen.

The Padres have Jackson Merrill roaming center field for them this season with Tatis providing elite defense in right field. Perhaps they could shift Merrill to left field or something to make this work though.

I don't think Varsho would necessarily help the team land a top of the rotation starter. He only has a year of remaining control, and it's yet to be determined what he is moving forward after the offseason shoulder surgery. Competitive teams wouldn't typically be trading away their top arms, and I would tend to expect them to largely target younger pieces as the key returns in trade. I believe Varsho is far more valuable to the Blue Jays at this point vs a potential trade return given the extended struggles at the plate of Straw as this team's rotation largely depends on balls in play being turned into outs, and an elite center field defender such as Varsho who typically runs around a league average bat is a key piece.

Who is everyone? I'm surprised you don't want to trade him given the steady stream of prior comments about firing him into the sun.

I think Barger has a more complete toolset.

I'll go with Dylan Cease as a potentially available front of the rotation rental.

McMahon is also a very solid defender and I believe he has a more realistic shot to not be a giant black hole offensively. McMahon's numbers away from Coors Field are terrible at 64 wRC+, but Hayes actually manages to be far worse away from home at 36 wRC+.

Hayes 61 wRC+ over the last two seasons is MLB's worst with players at a minimum of 700 PA. With McMahon it would require more of an incremental level of improvement required to allow him to reach being a league average bat and he's a far more suitable addition to a team intending to compete.

And he has a rather sizable home/away split as well. The Statcast expected home runs chart doesn't show him gaining any kind of home run bump from playing in Yankee Stadium, but they have had success in boosting the success at the plate of their trade acquisitions many times in the past.

Barger sort of defies explanation as he drastically reduced his strikeout rate at the major league level, but all of Wagner, Schneider and Loperfido were enjoying sustained runs of success in AAA after slow starts.

This seems like something that could eventually require surgery to correct. Hopefully the cortisone shot allows him to successfully return at some point this season but those always feel like more of a bandaid solution and there's often a price to be paid later.

It's sort of a pick your poison scenario as each of them have endured painful seasons. Both of these guys are reclamation projects at this point. Alcantara has a far more reasonable contract and more realistic upside to offer to whatever team helps to get him turned around.

I don't tend to think that Kwan would represent enough of an upgrade to the club compared to what they already possess in house to make it worthwhile to pay the prospect cost of acquiring him. While the farm system is in dramatically better shape compared to a season ago at this time there aren't unlimited trade resources available. During the wild run up the standings the Blue Jays are MLB's second highest scoring team, being only a single run behind the first place Rays while playing one less game. I just don't see another left handed hitting outfielder being a huge priority given the somewhat pedestrian pitching staff that the team employs.

Just because the Blue Jays can take on bad contracts doesn't make a good case that they should be doing so. Severino may be cheap in terms of prospect capital due to his onerous salary, but he's earning number 3 starter money and largely producing value closer to that of a number 4/5. I don't think the Blue Jays need to do the Athletics a massive favor in taking this contract off of their hands.