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The Toronto Blue Jays are open to dealing from their Major League roster in order to fortify their pitching staff.

"We're looking to add and it's hard to take away from the big-league club," Alex Anthopoulos told Sportsnet's Tim & Sid Show.

"I was on the phone with one team (prior to coming on the show) and I mentioned that we may need to be creative. As much as we don't want to take away from the current 25, we bounced around some ideas and concepts. That's not the path we want to go down but if we can't seem to get what we want from a prospect standpoint we'll need to open it up and be creative, similar to what Oakland and the Red Sox did last year with Jon Lester and (Yoenis) Cespedes. We're open to doing something like that as well."

wow, im not against the idea if it improves the team, but just reading that part about Oakland trading with Boston last season makes me nervous. They were the best team in the MLB until that deal. Imagine if JAYS get a top flight pitcher, but then the offense goes south because of chemistry issues.

getting another ace is worth a lot to me. with stroman next year it can mean good things. id rather see that than all this offense.

Raider917 wrote:getting another ace is worth a lot to me. with stroman next year it can mean good things. id rather see that than all this offense.

From most of the rumors and talk going on, JAYS would prefer a rental as opposed to a long term locked up Ace. So its more likely we end up with a Latos, Cueto or Samardjiza type rather than a Cole Hamels.

This is all fun and good until we consider who is the dude leaving... I mean who is going to get us anybody good, if Cespedes was the cost of a rental last year? Edwin?

Maybe Devon Travis is the trade bait?

North_of_Border wrote:

Raider917 wrote:getting another ace is worth a lot to me. with stroman next year it can mean good things. id rather see that than all this offense.

From most of the rumors and talk going on, JAYS would prefer a rental as opposed to a long term locked up Ace. So its more likely we end up with a Latos, Cueto or Samardjiza type rather than a Cole Hamels.

uhhhh AA was just on prime time sports and it sounds like quite the opposite is true. AA said the rental market is "the last aisle i want to shop in". team control has been a priority for AA's acquisitions since he started here. it's more likely we don't end up with any pending free agent but rather a name no one here has even thought of yet.

I think its more of giving a club that's struggling on offense (maybe like White Soxs or the Mets) someone like Smoak or Colabello for a reliable starter. We have a surplus 1B/DH anyways, might as well get a backend starter that's doing better than Dickey and Hutch.

tempests_dawn wrote:Maybe Devon Travis is the trade bait?

Noooo

I will seriously boycott the team

I found it interesting when AA said on PT Sports 'teams were waiting to see if they'd go on a little hot streak over the next week'. I immediately thought of the A's and Kazmir.

It sure would be nice to get some pitching. I mean, it is July after all and the season's already started slipping away...

On second thought about Kazmir

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/618944309082103808[/tweet]

Regulars with tons of control like Pillar and Travis almost certainly aren't on the table. They'd only be included if we were getting a really, really good starter back for more than a few month rental.

Like JoeyBats said above, I think the major leaguers AA is referring to are guys like Colabello, Smoak, and Navarro.

Lateral Quicks wrote:Regulars with tons of control like Pillar and Travis almost certainly aren't on the table. They'd only be included if we were getting a really, really good starter back for more than a few month rental.

Like JoeyBats said above, I think the major leaguers AA is referring to are guys like Colabello, Smoak, and Navarro.

I was thinking about that tonight. No great hardship if we dealt either Colabello or Smoak, Navarro it goes without saying. Valencia has his use as an offensive specialist who can play multiple positions reasonably well.

Hope that guy is Hutchinson. Maybe another team can look at his positive win-loss record, and his pitching performances at home, allowing them to believe that he is a much better pitcher than he actually is.

Colabello and hutch and Dickey...

wazabifuzz wrote:Colabello and hutch and Dickey...

Who are three people that have never been in my kitchen?

Part of me can't help but think about the returns we'd get in this obvious seller's market if we decided to sell a couple guys.

Like even if we just move a guy like Cecil who has a strong track record and fills a need as a LH setup man. We don't have to get Eduardo Rodriguez for him but we might get close.

imagine the haul the blue jays would get for bautista/encarnacion.

the leadership group clearly revolves around donaldson and martin. bats, e5 and that joke of a shortstop are all just along for the ride. while two of their values are highest, the jays should trade them. i love bautista and encarnacion as blue jays but they have about as much leadership qualities as kevin, stuart and bob leading the minions.

trading both should net the blue jays 4-6 prospects depending on high highly regarded they are to teams that are ACTUAL CONTENDERS.

i am in the minority here but the jays should consider being sellers in this market. the season was written off the day stroman got hurt.

How many homeruns will 'leadership' hit for us in the second half? Because I have a decent idea of how many Joey Bats will hit.

FrankGrimes wrote:imagine the haul the blue jays would get for bautista/encarnacion.

the leadership group clearly revolves around donaldson and martin. bats, e5 and that joke of a shortstop are all just along for the ride. while two of their values are highest, the jays should trade them. i love bautista and encarnacion as blue jays but they have about as much leadership qualities as kevin, stuart and bob leading the minions.

trading both should net the blue jays 4-6 prospects depending on high highly regarded they are to teams that are ACTUAL CONTENDERS.

i am in the minority here but the jays should consider being sellers in this market. the season was written off the day stroman got hurt.

Yep, that's certainly the appeal. As the old saw goes, and as the last stretch of games have reminded some of us, "good pitching beats good hitting". Our pitching is rather awful, and a single major-league calibre pitcher isn't going to make much of a difference.

If we continue to hover around the .500 mark come the deadline, the very last thing AA should do is gut the farm system again for a hail mary attempt. Why not sell our vets and look to regroup next year?