Toronto Blue Jays: Looking at the road ahead in their rebuild

The Toronto Blue Jays have to think about building for the future but that shouldn’t mean ignoring ways to improve the major league roster.

There haven’t been many reasons to cheer for the Toronto Blue Jays this season with all eyes on what the future lies and what the team will do at the trade deadline.

Back in April, Jeff Blair wrote for Sportsnet that the Blue Jays rebuild had already begun, they just never formally announced it like other teams have. As Blair notes, you cannot trade draft picks in baseball, if that was the case more teams would take the rebuilding route.

Instead, teams have to rely on their ability to draft and develop prospects or go out and make deals for other teams young talent. In the Blue Jays case, they are starting to see the benefit of holding onto their young player or target players with some level of control.

J.A. Happ figures to be the best asset that the team can move and hopefully he brings a decent return. But past trades should show that the front office can think about the future while addressing the current roster.

When they acquired Teoscar Hernandez for Francisco Liriano they got an outfielder who is young (currently 25) and already making an impact on the team. Another example is Randal Grichuk who is only a year older and looks to be over a rough start to the season.

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Then there’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who many expect to be on the team next season which makes you wonder how long the Blue Jays can continue along the road of rebuilding this team?

This brings us to the point of not only build towards the future by bringing in prospects but players that are close or ready to make an impact. The trades with Hernandez and Grichuk are examples of that but looking at how this season has gone there are many areas that need to be addressed.

The lack of production from the shortstop position continues to be concerning especially with the future of Troy Tulowitzki in serious doubt.

There’s also the starting rotation which has underperformed for the most part this season, this is where the inspiration for the article comes into play.

Jonah Keri recently wrote for Sportsnet how the Blue Jays should consider being in the buying market for controllable starting pitching. He brought up four names that the team could consider in Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Chris Archer and Michael Fulmer.

These are all big name players that not only bring a strong pedigree but they would be a strong complement to a rotation that already includes Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman going forward. The tough part is imagining what the Blue Jays would have to give up in order to get a deal done which might scare off the Blue Jays front office who hold their prospects in high esteem.

Sam Gaviglio could be a strong candidate for an end of the rotation spot as well if he’s able to continue his strong start. If the team is able to add another starter through trade and consider bringing back J.A. Happ it could help push things forward.

Imagine what the Blue Jays could have done if they identified the need to move off of some of their older players like Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion and get something in return. Granted, the team made an offer to Encarnacion and tried to bring him back but didn’t seem to make that a priority.

In Josh Donaldson‘s case, there was the belief that teams called about the availability of the former AL MVP. Now with Donaldson sidelined, the team might not get anything tangible in return if teams are concerned about his injury. Maybe they can get him back in time to do something or the team extends him a qualifying offer or contract and go from there.

Next: What now for Roberto Osuna?

What do you think the Blue Jays should do going forward? Is it more important to build up the prospect pool or find players that are ready or close to stepping in to the major leagues? Let us know in the comments below.

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