The Blue Jays took a 3-1 series opener over the Cardinals tonight. That combined with another Cleveland loss moved them within 4.5 games of the AL’s final Wild Card spot. They’d need to surpass six teams and are still eight games under .500, however, so a deadline sale seems prudent.
That’s likely to be the case for the team’s notable impending free agents, though it seems the Jays are keeping an open mind to adding as well. Mitch Bannon of The Athletic reports that Toronto has had conversations about acquiring a noteworthy player who is controllable beyond this season. That’d be in addition to trades of rentals like Kevin Gausman, Daulton Varsho and Shane Bieber — all of whom the Jays are expected to move, Bannon writes.
There’s merit for the Jays in exploring buy-side concepts for controllable pieces. They’re certainly not about to kick off a rebuild. They have George Springer, Yimi García, Myles Straw and Max Scherzer coming off the books in addition to the aforementioned trio of rentals. Those players are combining for nearly $90MM in salaries. They’ll probably trade or non-tender Jesús Sánchez, who is making close to $7MM in arbitration this year. Relievers Tyler Rogers and Jeff Hoffman are on eight-figure salaries and not completely unavailable in trade conversations.
That affords Toronto ample financial flexibility as they look ahead to 2027. The upcoming free agent class after Tarik Skubal is the weakest in recent memory. They’re going to need multiple starting pitchers to slot behind Dylan Cease and Trey Yesavage. The long-term outfield picture isn’t great. Some of that could be solved by re-signing their own players, but they’re going to need some changes to a roster that has underperformed this season.
The Jays could poke around for a controllable starter like Reid Detmers or José Soriano. There’s a non-zero chance the Reds trade Hunter Greene. The Jays wouldn’t be the favorite for any of those players even if they are moved, but it’s understandable for them to kick the tires. There are fewer obvious possibilities in the outfield, assuming the Giants stick to their plan of holding Jung Hoo Lee, but they could look to a team with an outfield surplus (e.g. Twins, Nationals) to see if there’s a match on a role player like Trevor Larnach or Jacob Young.
As for the rentals, they’re all surely aware of the possibility they’ll be moved. Gausman said this afternoon that there haven’t been any extension conversations. He hasn’t pitched particularly well lately but has an excellent track record and still boasts strong stuff. There’ll be ample interest from contenders. Varsho is the best rental center fielder available even in a slightly down season.
Bieber is a trickier evaluation. The former Cy Young winner missed the first few months working back from elbow inflammation. He was shelled in two of his first three appearances, pitched very well over three starts around the All-Star Break, then had arguably the worst outing of his career on Tuesday. Bieber walked six Nationals hitters without escaping the first inning in what might be his final start as a Blue Jay. He said postgame he was having difficulty finding his grip on the ball.
That leaves Bieber with a 5.74 ERA and an ugly strikeout and walk profile over seven starts. He’ll be owed roughly $4.73MM after the deadline on his $16MM salary. It’s unclear how robust the interest will be, but Russell Dorsey of Yahoo! Sports reports that the White Sox are among the teams looking at him. The Sox are taking a broad approach to finding a starter to slot alongside Sean Burke and Davis Martin in a potential playoff rotation. They’ve also been tied to Detmers and Clay Holmes, among others.
