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The Blue Jays are just one game worse off than the Rays. While they're 8 1/2 games behind the first-place Yankees, they're just 2 1/2 games behind the wobbly Orioles, who still are (barely) holding onto the second wild-card spot in the American League.

The standings say that the Blue Jays still have a chance.

Two rival scouts who have seen them play recently disagree, and think that general manager Alex Anthopoulos should concentrate his energy this month on selling off some players who could have value on the July market.

"They're not going to win starting Aaron Laffey and Carlos Villanueva and Brett Cecil," one of the scouts said Monday, mentioning three-fifths of the Jays' current injury-hit starting rotation.

That scout suggested that the Blue Jays should consider moving Casey Janssen, who is 9 for 9 in save opportunities and has a 1.33 ERA since taking over as closer.

Another rival official said that the Jays are souring on shortstop Yunel Escobar, and suggested that he could be on the move to make room for Adeiny Hechevarria. The original plan had been for Escobar to eventually shift to second base, but the thinking now is that the Blue Jays could prefer to move him to another team, instead.

There has already been plenty of speculation that the Blue Jays would deal Edwin Encarnacion, who would generate interest in a July market that is short on quality hitters.

If not for the injury to top prospect Travis d'Arnaud, the Blue Jays would have also been likely to move a catcher this month. d'Arnaud was tearing up the Triple-A Pacific Coast League before he tore a ligament in his knee last week.

CZAR85 wrote:Perkins made a good point that top pitchers that have been traded lately have been a disaster for their new teams.

J-Roc wrote:The unfortunate thing about cleaning house in baseball is it means you aren't competing for who knows how long.

dagger wrote:

CZAR85 wrote:Perkins made a good point that top pitchers that have been traded lately have been a disaster for their new teams.

You mean Gio Gonzales, don't you.

flatjacket1 wrote:I say sellers as well. People think being a seller at the deadline means you are losing talent, which is not true.

Last year we netted Colby as sellers. If we sell on Oliver, Perez, Rajai and such we will likely net another young, controllable player.

I think we should not even consider being buyers, but rather debate whether or not we should be sellers or just stay pat.

Prospects are great. All good players were good prospects at one point (or performed well enough to deserve a promotion). Let's not forget d'Arnaud is a top 5 prospect and a catcher at that. Do we really want 1.5 years of Garza for a cornerstone who had a better minor league track record than Lawrie (at an older age though mind you). In 2011 he was our organizations top power hitter according to BA in 2011?

nonc wrote:Edwin should also be dealt (or extended), playing out the contract really serves no purpose to the Blue Jays.

flatjacket1 wrote:I say sellers as well. People think being a seller at the deadline means you are losing talent, which is not true.

Last year we netted Colby as sellers. If we sell on Oliver, Perez, Rajai and such we will likely net another young, controllable player.

Hamyltowne wrote:Anyone catch Ken Rosenthal's trade-Rasmus idea today on MLB Network?

nonc wrote:

Hamyltowne wrote:Anyone catch Ken Rosenthal's trade-Rasmus idea today on MLB Network?

nope, was it as dumb as i'm imaging it would be?

tecumseh18 wrote:His point is that we have Gose and Marisnick bubbling up from below, and obvious needs at SP, so why not move Rasmus? Of course it makes sense from the outsider perspective. Rosenthal's no idiot.