TORONTO — With nearly six weeks remaining before the MLB trade deadline, it’s only possible to anticipate so much.
Potential buyers may become sellers. Presumed sellers may end up holding. Injuries will inevitably play a significant role in what’s ahead, too.
But with the caveat that many of our current assumptions can and will change, a preliminary picture of the deadline is starting to emerge for the Toronto Blue Jays. Speaking at Rogers Centre Tuesday, general manager Ross Atkins said the Blue Jays intend to add to their roster while identifying the rotation as his team’s biggest area of need.
“It’s probably starting pitching,” Atkins said. “But it’s not as easy as just deciding to do that, because we have five starters that we’re confident in. But you can just never have enough.”
If the Blue Jays do add a starting pitcher, it would fit within their typical pattern of summer activity under Atkins. They’ve added some prominent starting pitchers at the trade deadline in recent years, including Robbie Ray (2020), Taijuan Walker (2020), Ross Stripling (2020), Jose Berrios (2021) and Shane Bieber (2025).
The return of Bieber gives the Blue Jays a front five that also includes Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage and Patrick Corbin, with Max Scherzer working his way back from the injured list. It’s an accomplished group, but “we’re just always looking to best support that,” Atkins said.
Ideally, the Blue Jays would find an optionable young starting pitcher who’s big-league ready and controllable for years to come, but it’s “so hard to acquire” players like that because they’re coveted by every team and have massive trade value.
Complicating matters for buyers like the Blue Jays, it’s not exactly clear which teams will be selling. With teams like the Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals contending ahead of schedule and more established clubs like the New York Mets and Houston Astros still within striking distance, it could be a year with fewer impact players available.
“There’s so many teams that are in it that maybe didn’t expect to be,” Atkins said. “It’s a little bit early to say exactly what that’s going to look like. If it holds, it’s going to be very much a seller’s market.”
Though he’s now in a long relief role, Simeon Woods Richardson is someone who could “absolutely” start games as the season progresses.
“He really, really projects well for us,” Atkins said. “The arsenal is very much there. The competitiveness is there. We feel like he’s made strides already with us, but we’ve got to have the opportunity for him, and (he) certainly could be (an option).”
Meanwhile, at the minor-league level, the Blue Jays have some interesting pitchers making their way closer to the majors, including Jake Bloss and Ricky Tiedemann, both of whom are recovering from reconstructive elbow surgeries and already on the team’s 40-man roster.
The 25-year-old Bloss recently reached triple-A. In seven total starts this season, he has a 3.80 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 23.2 innings — yet the Blue Jays aren’t inclined to rush him.
“We don’t want to put a timeline on that, because there’s two factors there,” Atkins said. “One would be his health and recovery, and the second one would be his development.”
Although Bloss is recovering “very well,” he’s still just 13 months removed from the elbow surgery he underwent last May. With that in mind, Atkins said, “It’s not a time to push, it’s a time to ensure that he’s taking the next safe step.”
Atkins described a similar dynamic with Tiedemann, noting that the left-hander “would have to get into a stretch of being effective for several weeks, out on minimum, to be a factor for us.” So far, the 23-year-old Tiedemann has appeared in just two games this season.
As for the Blue Jays’ offence, Atkins described the team’s current surplus of left-handed hitting outfielders as a good problem to have and indicated that Sean Keys, the 23-year-old corner infielder who has 18 home runs and a 1.006 OPS in the upper minors, could force his way onto the team.
‘There’s always a place for really good offensive players, and the more versatility that you have on your roster, the better,” Atkins said. “Trying to add versatility to him will be important.”
The return of Addison Barger in the coming weeks will also help the Blue Jays’ offence, but as of Tuesday, Atkins didn’t sound overly concerned about the potential of his team’s lineup.
“The biggest needs, really, are for us to get healthy and be the full team from a health and performance standpoint that we’ve been in the past,” he said. “That will have the biggest impact.”