WANTS ARE NEEDS

Nicholas D'Agostino

With June coming to an end, we are officially in trade deadline territory. With the deadline being just over a month away, all front offices across the MLB will be looking to improve their team in some sort of way. Now we don’t have definitive buyers and sellers just yet, but in the next couple of weeks you will see the separation of different teams around the league that are trying to add and subtract.

Currently, the Blue Jays sit second in the AL East and are in a playoff spot thanks to the recent expanded playoffs that have come into effect this year. When you look at their roster construction, their front office did a good job in adding to the team that won 91 games just a year ago. They did a very good job in replacing players that they lost last season with very respectable players.

Going into the deadline season, there is definitely room for improvement for the Jays as they could use 3 impact players, one of each position. They could use another starter, reliever and position player. In this article I will be focusing more on their pitching needs.

Personally, I believe the Jays should make a trade for pitching as soon as possible. While they probably want to address their needs closer to the deadline as prices should drop, they might need to think about trading for a guy to help out a month earlier. Last season when they brought in Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards before the trade deadline, those two players really helped solidify their bullpen as they pitched great down the stretch.

When their bullpen woes were hurting them GM Ross Atkins got two relievers and it gave them another two trusted arms in their bullpen. While I do believe they should add to their bullpen at some point this season, I think they should add a starter right away.

With Ryu out for the season and Kikuchi pitching poorly at the moment they could use a steady arm in their rotation to give them quality innings every 5 days.

So far this season their starting rotation has been really good. Manoah has emerged as a Cy Young candidate, Gausman has been a great option for them and Berrios has bounced back in June after a rough May. The area where I’m concerned is their back end rotation and their depth. Stripling has stepped into the rotation and has done a great job but Kikuchi has struggled this year. Their best bet would be to add a starter and move one of Kikuchi or Stripling to the bullpen as they have now lost Ryu for the year due to Tommy John Surgery.

Potential Trade Targets

Tyler Mahle- Cincinnati Reds

The 27-Year old right hander is under team control until 2023 and is a good option in the back end of a rotation as a 3,4,5 guy. Through 14 starts he has a respectable 4.46 ERA with 86 strikeouts in 74 innings.

Mahle will be looking to regain his form from last season as he pitched to a 13-6 record with a 3.75 ERA. Mahle also has good analytics that suggest he might be pitching better than his numbers say.

Martin Perez- Texas Rangers

In 81 innings this season Perez has a 2.10 ERA which is fourth best in the American League. Perez is on pace for his best season yet and if the Blue Jays were to acquire him, he could be another valuable lefty to the pitching staff.

Perez is only making $4 million this season so he should have a lot of interest come deadline day.

Frankie Montas- Oakland Athletics

Now if the Jays really want to swing for that home run they can look into acquiring Frankie Montas. The Athletics pitcher has real swing and miss stuff and is most definitely a front of the rotation type of guy.

He has the fifth most strikeouts in the American League with 84 and has a 3.53 ERA to go along with it. If the Jays were to go after Montas it wouldn't be cheap as he is a difference maker when he is on the mound. He would also be under team control until 2023.