Toronto Blue Jays complete three trades
It has been a bizarre season to say the least for Major League Baseball who was forced to postpone the start of the campaign until July. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, spring training was halted in March and the league had to adjust to a 60-game schedule as opposed to the typical 162-game season.
As a result, MLB also decided to alter its playoff format allowing for a total of eight teams in both the American League and National League to reach the playoffs. Typically only three division winners qualify, with two Wild Card teams meeting in a one-game showdown to see who reaches the final four in their respective league. The new format has provided hope for a few teams who probably would not have had any under the original format.
One of those teams is the Toronto Blue Jays who have had a decent start to the campaign sitting at 18-15 after 33 games. The club is now fighting tooth and nail to get back into the postseason for the first time since 2017. They have a young organization with a few veterans and have become an exciting team for baseball fans to watch.
On Monday, the club decided to make a few moves at the MLB trade deadline to help provide them with some depth ahead of the final stretch. The team acquired infielder Jonathan Villar along with two pitchers in Robbie Ray and Ross Stripling. The club did not have to give up very much either in any of the three deals trading various lower-end prospects from within their organization.
The Blue Jays had the prospects to make trades to acquire bigger name players, but did not want to go all-in. According to Toronto general manager Ross Atkins, he never intends to.
“Look at the Dodgers,” Atkins said, via Sportsnet. “It’s never all-in at one time – it’s a steady growth. They continue to build up their system. They’ve continued to make their 40-man roster more efficient and obviously very effective. It’s important to be measured, and there isn’t one juncture where, in our view, that you put all the cards on the table. For us it will be, hopefully, continuing to be able to build and have a system that continues to provide talent for us, and not just trade pieces. That’s our goal.
“We’ll hope to continue to be measured. At the same time, it’s not without making really significant deals that mean very, very high prices. But it’s too hard to say on when exactly that time will be where those bigger deals occur.”
The team had also acquired starting pitcher Taijuan Walker and first baseman Daniel Vogelbach in the days leading up to the deadline. While the Blue Jays did not bring in any household names, they are an improved team who should be able to squeak into the playoffs.
Toronto had a four-game winning streak snapped on Monday afternoon by the Baltimore Orioles, but look to start a new one when they begin their two-game series against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday evening at Marlins Park.
