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So how can those conditions be tipped more toward their favor? No team stands to benefit more from aggressive trade-deadline shopping than the Blue Jays — and the area to improve is obvious.

When GM Alex Anthopoulos wanted to make moves at last year’s trade deadline, he got rebuffed by the corporate owners at Rogers Communications, who claimed the budget was tapped out. Rather than taking fliers on high-risk, moderate-reward pitchers over the winter, the Jays mostly stood pat outside of the Donaldson and Martin moves. As TSN 1050 reporter Scott MacArthur noted on this week’s podcast, that lack of offseason spending on pitchers could leave the Jays with something like $6 million to $10 million to spend on arms between now and the deadline.

They also have the ammunition to get it done. Even with Stroman out, a mere partial list of intriguing early-to-mid twenties pitching chips includes Sanchez, Norris, Miguel Castro, Roberto Osuna, 2012 sandwich-round pick Matt Smoral, 24-year-old Triple-A starter Matt Boyd (1.12 ERA in 13 minor league starts this year), and 22-year-old righty (and 2014 no. 9 overall pick) Jeff Hoffman. Throw in the Jays’ top three picks this year — all of whom are pitchers — and Toronto has a war chest of pitching talent it can leverage to reel in a top-flight starting pitcher like Johnny Cueto, a mid-rotation type like Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza, or Mike Leake, or a bullpen ace like Jonathan Papelbon or Aroldis Chapman.4

It’s been 22 years since Joe Carter touched ’em all. Given Toronto’s historically powerful offense, improving health, iffy in-division competition, and a trade market wide open to bold moves for quality pitchers, the opportunity to end the longest postseason drought in baseball is right there in front of them. One more arm would make it a lot easier to reach.

It’s been 22 years since Joe Carter touched ’em all. Given Toronto’s historically powerful offense, improving health, iffy in-division competition, and a trade market wide open to bold moves for quality pitchers, the opportunity to end the longest postseason drought in baseball is right there in front of them. One more arm would make it a lot easier to reach.

Fairview4Life wrote:

It’s been 22 years since Joe Carter touched ’em all. Given Toronto’s historically powerful offense, improving health, iffy in-division competition, and a trade market wide open to bold moves for quality pitchers, the opportunity to end the longest postseason drought in baseball is right there in front of them. One more arm would make it a lot easier to reach.

Yes, but change the dates a little and you have the argument for why we made the Dickey trade that we just spent several days crying about.

Kurtz wrote:I understand the apprehension, but what if a deal like Cueto+Chapman+cash for Sanchez+Pentecost+Boyd was on the table?

Cueto gives us our ace for this season, and we get an edge in signing him as a FA, especially if he works in the AL East. Chapman gives us that ace closer for the next 2 seasons+. Meanwhile, we'd be selling sorta high on Sanchez, whose control issues will likely prevent him from ever becoming a front-end starter. We'd be selling very high on Boyd. And Pentecost is blocked for the next 5 years anyway.

A deal like that allows us to keep arguably our best 3 prospects (Hoffman, Norris, Pompey) while not only giving us a massive boost in the playoff run, but also that ace who you absolutely must have if you have any hopes of making noise in the playoffs.

Kurtz wrote:I understand the apprehension, but what if a deal like Cueto+Chapman+cash for Sanchez+Pentecost+Boyd was on the table?

Cueto gives us our ace for this season, and we get an edge in signing him as a FA, especially if he works in the AL East. Chapman gives us that ace closer for the next 2 seasons+. Meanwhile, we'd be selling sorta high on Sanchez, whose control issues will likely prevent him from ever becoming a front-end starter. We'd be selling very high on Boyd. And Pentecost is blocked for the next 5 years anyway.

A deal like that allows us to keep arguably our best 3 prospects (Hoffman, Norris, Pompey) while not only giving us a massive boost in the playoff run, but also that ace who you absolutely must have if you have any hopes of making noise in the playoffs.

Kurtz wrote:I understand the apprehension, but what if a deal like Cueto+Chapman+cash for Sanchez+Pentecost+Boyd was on the table?

Cueto gives us our ace for this season, and we get an edge in signing him as a FA, especially if he works in the AL East. Chapman gives us that ace closer for the next 2 seasons+. Meanwhile, we'd be selling sorta high on Sanchez, whose control issues will likely prevent him from ever becoming a front-end starter. We'd be selling very high on Boyd. And Pentecost is blocked for the next 5 years anyway.

A deal like that allows us to keep arguably our best 3 prospects (Hoffman, Norris, Pompey) while not only giving us a massive boost in the playoff run, but also that ace who you absolutely must have if you have any hopes of making noise in the playoffs.

Schadenfreude wrote:Yeah, we get zero edge re-signing him. Actually, trading for Cueto only increases his leverage, because he ceases to be eligible for arbitration and consequently will walk without compensation.

Sifu wrote:

Schadenfreude wrote:Yeah, we get zero edge re-signing him. Actually, trading for Cueto only increases his leverage, because he ceases to be eligible for arbitration and consequently will walk without compensation.

Really, no first round pick in compensation?

dagger wrote:
And this team needs more than one starting pitcher. Who of the current five could you see starting an ALCS game against the opponent's best? Or Game 2? Or Game 3? Hutchison? Dickey? I respect what Buehrle is doing, but seriously, do you think he wins a Game 2. There is no one on our staff who can win a 1-0 game. Cueto solves Game 1, but Games 2 and 3 would be the biggest of crap shoots.

Sifu wrote:If we make it to the playoffs then its Stroman and Hoffman as our 1 and 2. Domination!

dagger wrote:

Sifu wrote:If we make it to the playoffs then its Stroman and Hoffman as our 1 and 2. Domination!

Stroman's talking a good fight but you never know until he pitches a game how long it will take him to hit stride. I'm not counting on him for this season, not as a top of the rotation guy. And forget about Hoffman until 2016 at least.