Atkins offers trade deadline vision as Blue Jays’ bats stay quiet vs. Padres

By Anthony On Jul 20, 2023

TORONTO – Consider Ross Atkins’ latest media availability a strategic positioning of the Toronto Blue Jays for the trade deadline, an outline to both the club’s fans and the wider baseball industry of how he plans to approach the critical juncture from now to 6 p.m. ET on Aug. 1.

Additions are coming because “we need to make this team better in any possible way,” although fitting new players in is somewhat complicated given how set the current roster is, said the general manager. From a position-player standpoint, “we are better suited for a right-handed bat, but we are open to any way that we can make our team better.” In terms of starters, “you can never have enough pitching, as they say, so we have to contingency plan, but having (the current group) as a starting point is a good place to be.” For the bullpen, “creating depth in our left-handed relief category” is ideal, “but it’s more just who’s going to allow us to get the most outs.”

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Lastly, take note of this: “What we don’t want to do is subtract (from the current roster). We believe in the group that’s here. We believe they’ve earned that right. We can’t say that we absolutely won’t, but we would prefer not to.”

Coming from an executive navigating the rumour-mill grist inherent to this time of year, that’s as specific and transparent a blueprint as you’re going to find. Given how carefully planned and managed the club’s public messaging is, you can be certain that they have a vague idea of what’s already realistic for them given where the market sits right now.

Everything is subject to change, of course. Two-thirds of teams in the majors believe they’re either a real contender, or are giving their players more runway before deciding in or out. A deadline add up the food chain may emerge. Shifts in the status of Hyun Jin Ryu and Chad Green could alter the current calculus. Other needs may suddenly take precedence.

By and large, though, Atkins made it clear the Blue Jays are planning to ride or die with who they already have.

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“We certainly don’t need significant upticks,” said Atkins. “You’ve seen recently with just some of the more timely hitting, which we know and in some cases can be very much luck driven. But you can’t fall back on that, of course. So we believe in this group so much that making it better, we have to work to do. Hard to do without some level of subtraction. But we do think there’s a way to add a little bit of offence to the team without having to subtract anyone.

“And on the pitching side, every team in contention is trying to add a reliever, and then every team in contention is trying to add some level of starting pitching depth. So there are different ways to do that. I think we’re in a relatively strong position, but we need to work to improve upon it as well.”

A second straight loss to the San Diego Padres later Wednesday – 2-0 behind six shutout innings from Yu Darvish and a two-run single by Manny Machado during a fifth inning extended when Jose Berrios threw behind a stealing Trent Grisham but the Blue Jays couldn’t convert the out – underlined the opportunity for improvement.

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A hard-hitting righty would certainly have been handy during the ninth inning, when southpaw closer Josh Hader came in to face an ideal pocket that included lefty hitters Dalton Varsho and Kevin Kiermaier. Santiago Espinal flew out in place of Varsho and after Danny Jansen was hit by a pitch, Alejandro Kirk subbed in for Kiermaier and struck out. That left it all up to George Springer, who struck out to end it before a crowd of 42,948.

Berrios, who allowed four hits with four walks with nine strikeouts over six innings in his latest impressive outing, deserved better.

“He had electric stuff from the get-go. Kind of held it throughout,” said manager John Schneider. “Broken-bat single for the two runs and had the pickoff there and Grisham went a little bit earlier than we thought. Jose has been as consistent as anyone over the last 18 or 20 starts, he was in total control, all three pitches. Couldn’t really ask much more from him tonight.”

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Atkins was pretty deliberate in describing the need for a part-time, right-handed hitter, saying of the offence’s needs that “it’s not several opportunities, really seeing it as one for that final push where there would be potentially not even every-day at-bats for it depending on how we ended up making that move.”

There is no shortage of options along those lines already on or likely to hit the market. Available right now is veteran Nelson Cruz, but that’s an awkward fit, especially if he continues to struggle and has to be released in short order. Cruz was released by the Padres earlier this month.

They’re experimenting in the interim, selecting the contract of Jordan Luplow earlier in the day while optioning Nathan Lukes to triple-A Buffalo, and Davis Schneider, who’s emerged this season with the Bisons, continues to be on the radar.

Atkins’ mention of a lefty reliever is intriguing as the Blue Jays have been fine to use Tim Mayza in key spots versus southpaws – he struck out Juan Soto with two out in the top of the ninth – and augment with righties Trevor Richards and Erik Swanson as needed.

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How the Blue Jays would fit another lefty on the pitching staff isn’t clear with both Ryu and Green on the horizon and only two replaceable spots in Mitch White and Jay Jackson. Injury, of course, could change the outlook there, and another option if Ryu and Alek Manoah are both in the rotation is using Yusei Kikuchi in relief.

Trade resources could then be allocated toward a bat and perhaps an optionable starter – perhaps akin to the Blue Jays’ pickup of White, who is now out of options, at the deadline a year ago.

That’s a tall order without paying a steep price, and whereas in past deadlines the Blue Jays sought to do some of their off-season shopping early – think Berrios in 2021 or Whit Merrifield last year – they no longer have the same roster flexibility.

“The challenge now is we don’t have the holes,” explained Atkins. “We have really, really good players at every position. Some of them maybe not performing to their levels, but there’s not a position where we’re looking and saying we really need to fill that void. So that makes it more challenging. You could acquire a player that comes into an awkward situation and maybe has more runway after the fact, but that’s not our focus right now. But I wouldn’t eliminate that from happening.”

Nor should he, because eliminating possibilities is never a good idea. But the Blue Jays seem to have at least hatched a plan for this deadline, ready to act on what the next two weeks present.

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