Toronto Blue Jays: Bad timing to start a rebuild

Rebuilding starts with trading young arms, not veterans

Make no mistake about it, if the Jays want to rebuild – truly rebuild – it begins and ends with trading Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna. All three pitchers have what other teams covet; youth, upside, and years of control remaining.

Is the organization prepared to trade nine years of combined control (after 2017) over three extremely talented pitchers, in order to possibly become a great team five years from now? That is the question the front office has to ask themselves.

The upside in keeping them is that all three should be able to retain their value a year from now, barring injury or a dramatic drop in performance. All three are under team control through 2020.

Trading them after the 2018 season would mean other teams would still have two years of control over them (or two and a half years, if traded at the 2018 trade deadline). Not as good as three years, but still a decent enough time to get value in return.

Clearly, if the team wants the type of prospect haul the Chicago White Sox got for Chris Sale, Adam Eaton and Jose Quintana, it will come by trading the young pitchers, not the old veterans.