Toronto Blue Jays: Starting rotation needs to be priority at Winter Meetings
With starting pitching at the top of the Toronto Blue Jays wishlist, the team cannot come away from the Winter Meetings without making some progress.
In past seasons, the Winter Meetings haven’t provided the Toronto Blue Jays with the necessary spark they have been looking for considering they have been prioritizing their rebuild.
Things should be different this time around considering Toronto can’t continue to be sitting at the bottom of the standings. They have started to show potential with their top prospects making their way to the big leagues but Ross Atkins needs to get some help especially in the rotation.
All eyes are on Gerrit Cole who is the most coveted free agent on the block but as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reports, the Blue Jays won’t be in the running for him. Instead, they will be looking down the list after missing out on Zack Wheeler and Jake Odorizzi too.
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This is why with teams going after Cole, Toronto should be making pitchers like Hyun-Jin Ryu and Dallas Keuchel a priority considering they are more realistic options. Of course, that won’t be enough to get the team to where they want to go and you can never have enough pitching.
The Blue Jays don’t just have the ability to add a player via free agency but they can also use the trade route to get a deal done for pitching. Unless they want to be competitive Ken Giles could fetch them a good return in the trade market and a couple of building blocks to move forward with.
While the team has the capital to spend in free agency, they need to avoid getting caught up in bidding wars that could prove to be costly down the road. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be shy about trying to make offers for high profile free agents, but they certainly can’t miss the ball on moving this team forward.
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What do the Blue Jays need to do going into the Winter Meetings? Who should be their top target? Let us know in the comments below.