The Toronto Blue Jays are one of the most intriguing teams in MLB to monitor heading into the trade deadline. In the early part of June, Toronto is 31-28 on the year and in second place in the AL East behind the New York Yankees. Selling at this point seems a bit farfetched, but a lot can change over the course of two months. One of the biggest trade chips they do have is shortstop Bo Bichette.
On the year, Bichette is hitting .277 with seven home runs and 32 runs batted in. He is playing fine up to his standards, but may no longer be a franchise cornerstone Ross Atkins wants to invest in long-term. This comes on the heels of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s mega extension at the start of the season. Bichette is also the son of a former MLB star, but he is still expected to hit free agency next winter.
However, there are other factors at play that could prevent Bichette from being traded besides Toronto play good baseball. ESPN's Jeff Passan wrote about how their may not be all that much of a market for shortstops at the deadline. He did mention that Bichette could conceivably man second base for a contending team, but Toronto may just leave well enough alone and roll the dice here.
As long as the Blue Jays are playing above-.500 baseball, I struggle to see them trading Bichette.
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Why Toronto Blue Jays may be reticent to trading Bo Bichette this season
The big thing in all this is what kind of message would Atkins and the rest of the Blue Jays organization be sending to its nationwide fanbase? This is Canada's MLB team, one that has been largely competitive for the most part over the last several seasons with this core. Yes, this team may have hit a finite ceiling, but trading away Bichette with time still left on his contract would look awful.
Again, why would Atkins give Guerrero all that money if he and the Blue Jays planned on blowing it up after this season? Make it make sense! It may be a long-term play to eventually build another winner around Guerrero, with or without this core. However, I doubt Toronto is going to punt on one of its best and most notable assets in Bichette when the team is winning and he may not have a big market.
What I am getting from Passan's post on the early MLB trade deadline market is Toronto may not be in a position to be a seller on players like Bichette than may prognosticators were expecting. Again, a lot will need to happen between now and the trade deadline for Bichette to be playing for another team. The timeline for that is probably next offseason. I could go either way on if he comes back to Toronto.
Meanwhile, let's enjoy some good Blue Jays baseball and see if they can stick in the AL East race.