So with the Angels' bombshell trade yesterday, they're clearly not selling Ohtani at the deadline. It was his market that had apparently slowed the whole trade deadline to this point. So with that now presumably out of the way, what are everyone's trade deadline predictions for the Jays now as we're 5 days away? Pre-game broadcast yesterday was pushing for a Tim Anderson type trade to help out at second. He's had a bit of a down year for him, but his numbers are way up the last two weeks or so.
Regardless of whether Chad Green is going to come back and be as good as he used to be, I think we should also be targeting a back-end reliever to help out the bullpen. Bonus if we can get a back end reliever who's also a lefty.
The rotation is the trickiest I think. With Ryu's return around the corner and Manoah seeming to get back some of his lost mojo, the rotation is an area we probably need the least help with. That being said, is there any team ever who couldn't use more starting pitching depth? We're an injury or two away from bullpen days still, I don't think anyone in the minors is ready to step up and perform on a team with playoff aspirations down the stretch. So what would a move look like for starting pitching? Maybe we do go for another starter, and we can move Kikuchi into the bullpen, to add a lefty, and a guy who can eat up innings. Potentially creates some interesting moves for Schneider to start a righty, and bring in Kikuchi in the 4th or 5th to mess with the batters on the other team.
What moves should the Jays make this deadline to propel us deeper into the playoffs than the wildcard round? I don't think anyone on the team or the fans are going to be happy with a first round exit again.
I feel like Genesis Cabrera is the new lefty back end reliever, at least they must be hoping so? I struggle a bit to see what positions they should be targeting to actually improve their situation. There was an MLB article today also talking about Anderson for the Jays, but I dunno if that really helps.
Yeah, Tim Anderson plays SS, right? I agree: how does that help us? For hitting, our two objectives are 1) get Varsho out of the lineup and 2) see if we can get a true run-producer middle of the lineup hitter (who'd bump Belt down). Therefore, the hitter we're looking for needs to be able to play LF, 2B (as Merrifield can move to LF) or DH. Maybe Anderson has 2B experience; otherwise, we don't want to kick Bo out of the lineup.
I think our rotation is fine, starters cost a ton, and playoff rotations are usually 3 deep.
So, my priorities are #1 an impact bat (edit: or 2) and #2 a high-leverage reliever
They said on yesterday's pre show that he played 2B in the WBC this year. He'd definitely be an upgrade at 2B for us. Although I agree a left fielder to get varsho out of the lineup is a bigger issue.
Whit to LF :) and being able to bring in Varsho as a late game defensive replacement would be great