Toronto Blue Jays: Fire up the Francisco Lindor trade rumours

With reports that Fransico Lindor could be moved before the opening day and the Toronto Blue Jays will be front and centre as trade rumours pick up.

It might be time for Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins to make a call to their former stomping grounds and see what the asking price would be for the Toronto Blue Jays to acquire Francisco Lindor.

With the Cleveland Indians looking to trade the star shortstop before opening day, this could be another opportunity for Toronto to take a significant step forward. The Blue Jays are no strangers to blockbuster moves for MVP candidates considering they made a similar move to get Josh Donaldson from the Oakland Athletics back in 2015.

Lindor has one more year of arbitration where he will likely get somewhere close to $21 million before he becomes a free agent in 2021. What obviously makes life tough on the Blue Jays is the bidding war that will come for Lidor’s services with other elite teams looking to enter the mix.

The caution that will be taken by this front office is the fact that this could be a one-year rental situation so the depth of being included in a deal shouldn’t be the same as in past years. At the same time, the Blue Jays are in a favourable position with the seventh-ranked prospect pool in baseball.

You have to think that Nate Pearson or Austin Martin would be non-starters in any deal for Lindor so maybe Cleveland targets Jordan Groshans, Simeon Woods Richardson. That would certainly be a hefty price to pay but it’s rare to see a player of Lindor’s calibre come around too often at 26-years-old.

Adding him would mean moving Bo Bichette to second base which you can guess would be a tough conversation considering the strides he’s made to improve defensively. However, the upgrade Lindor provides as a two-time gold glove winner would be enough justification.

This also makes the team deeper defensively and a more competitive lineup to pitch against. Whether or not it impacts the team’s ability to add in free agency remains to be seen but this could be a prime opportunity for Toronto to make the big splash the front office says they are looking to make.

We looked recently at the Trevor Bauer situation and how the top free agent pitcher would also make sense for the Blue Jays. It would be tough to say whether there is enough room on the team’s payroll to pull off both moves but it would certainly be an accomplished off-season for Toronto.

What do you think about Lindor being available? Should the Blue Jays be looking to add the shortstop? What would the right price be in a deal? Let us know in the comments below.