MLB Rumors: Toronto Blue Jays looking to trade for everyday infielder?
By Hayden Kane
Now that the Toronto Blue Jays have established that their early winning streak is no fluke, they get to partake in the mid-summer business of a contender. That means they get to start shopping for upgrades to their roster as the July 31st trade deadline approaches.
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It is familiar information by now that the Blue Jays are going to shop for starting pitching, whether it be for one of the starters on the Chicago Cubs (Jason Hammel, Jeff Samardzija) or somebody else. But the Blue Jays also face a decision in their infield.
Having failed to address their hole at second base before the season, the Blue Jays are currently juggling a platoon between second and third base that involves Brett Lawrie, Juan Francisco, Steve Tolleson, and Munenori Kawasaki. In an interview this week, general manager Alex Anthopoulos was candid about the fact that the Blue Jays would eventually like to move away from that system and find another everyday infielder (quotes from SportsNet.Ca):
"“If there’s a way that we could eliminate that platoon scenario in the infield, and just have one everyday player, that would certainly free things up for the bench and so on,” Anthopoulos told Jeff Blair and Kevin Barker. “That’s probably one area that in a perfect world you have that player.”"
Any such deal would likely land the Blue Jays a second or third baseman, slotting Lawrie into the other spot everyday while still carving out at-bats for the powerful Francisco. At second base they could shoot for the stars and try to acquire Chase Utley from the Philadelphia Phillies or try to pry Ben Zobrist away from their divisional foe in the Tampa Bay Rays.
Up to this point the Blue Jays have gotten away with the fact that they did nothing to improve their infield. It looks like they finally plan to address that issue in the next month or so.