With the 2024 MLB trade deadline concluding on July 30th, the Blue Jays are listing all items on clearance, as they have become one of the biggest sellers in the entire league. It seems at this point almost everyone on the roster could be up for sale, with multiple trades already finalized the club is moving back into the rebuild they found themselves in just a few years prior. With the mindset now to work backwards and shop as many assets as they can in exchange for top level prospects, Toronto will look extremely different after the July 30th deadline, and for many years to come. I’d like to take this opportunity to break down all of the trades Toronto has made, and give my two sense on how these moves could impact the team in the near future. There were a total of eight trades the Blue Jays made at the deadline this year, so I will be breaking down the first four trades here, and the other four in another article in order to evenly break up the large amount of content to discuss, without having to make one huge and overly long post.

Blue Jays Receive: Jonathon Clase, Jacob Sharp

Mariners Receive : Yimi Garcia

With the first transaction the Jays made at the deadline, Toronto sends arguably their best bullpen pitcher of the season to the Seattle Mariners. Toronto and Seattle have become synonymous with each other in terms of acquiring talent, with Seattle signing Robbie Ray in 2022, after winning a Cy Young award in Toronto, as well as the Mariners trading for Blue Jays fan-favourite Teoscar Hernandez. In exchange for Garcia, Toronto received outfield prospect Jonathon Clase and catcher Jacob Sharp. Both prospects show upside in their own ways, with Clase his upside comes in the form of his youth, potential, and versatility. Clase is only 22 years old, which makes him perfect to be a part  of the franchises outlook on building for the future. He is also a switch-hitter, which solidifies his versatility and potential to be a staple in the lineup, and after Kevin Kiermaier announced he will retire after the 2024 season, Clase could be in contention to getting called up every now and then next year to play and fill a hole in the outfield. The other part of this trade comes in Jacob Sharp, who is also 22 years old and while he doesn’t have quite the same potential as Clase, still has a place within the organization. He’s young a young catcher who can be developed into something of a major leaguer in the future which will be helpful due to the Jays current catcher situation (which i’ll get to later). Clearly Clase is the more valuable prospect of the two, being the no.9 ranked prospect in the Mariners system at the time of the trade, but overall this was an ok trade for the Blue Jays by being able to get a return for Garcia, who was in the last year of his current contract.

Blue Jays Receive: Josh Rivera, Yohendrick Pinago

Cubs Receive: Nate Pearson

The second deal Toronto made before the deadline involves sending fireball throwing pitcher Nate Pearson to Chicago, in exchange for two more prospects. This trade in all honesty is quite underwhelming for the time being, neither Rivera nor Pinago are high rated prospects from wither of their respective former teams, and their only upside is the fact that they are both still in their early 20’s. It’s obvious this is the direction Toronto wants to go in, so the trade makes sense especially because Pearson was a player that never got to be fully utilized by the Jays due to injuries in his past. Still I think Chicago won this trade by getting a hard throwing pitcher who the Cubs can still use in the bullpen and hope to potentially use as a starter if Pearson can further develop his control and stay healthy.

Toronto Receives: Cutter Coffey, Eddinson Paulino, Gilberto Batista

Boston Receives: Danny Jansen

In what turned into Toronto’s biggest haul thus far in their selling spree, the Blue Jays traded away catcher Danny Jansen in exchange for a package that included Cutter Coffey, who was a top 20 prospect in Boston’s system going into 2023. Jansen was a beloved member of Toronto’s roster, but with Jansen only batting .212 and being a part time catcher behind Alejandro Kirk, it was in the team’s best interest to find a trade. While this trade didn’t include a young catcher to potentially replace Jansen in the future, like I touched upon earlier, the Jays made a trade for Jonathon Clase, who can be used as the catcher for the future in Toronto’s system. Overall this is another solid trade for the Blue Jays, being able to get an impressive amount of young talent for only one of their own players.

Toronto Receives: RJ Schreck

Seattle Receives: Justin Turner

For the last trade I’ll discuss in this article, Toronto parts with veteran third baseman Justin Turner in a one-for-one trade yet again with Seattle, in exchange for RJ Schreck. Turner was brought in by the Blue Jays in the 2023 off season, to fill the hole left by Matt Chapman when he signed a contract with the San Francisco Giants. At 39 years old, fans didn’t expect much production from Turner, mostly thinking he was brought in for his defence and veteran leadership. Although, at the beginning of the season, Turner was the hottest bat on the team and led the offence for the first two months of the year. Eventually, Turner’s bat would cool off but he was still a vital part of the teams lineup and would be an everyday player, moving between third base, the DH spot, and even playing first base for a game. The Jays found it to be the perfect time at the trade deadline, to send Turner to the Mariners for only one player, that being RJ Schreck. Schreck is nothing special as of yet, he’s only 24 years old and could be a solid trade piece the Jays could use in the future if they don’t decide to call im up to the major leagues. This trade was mainly a way for the Blue Jays to get rid of whatever they could in order to fully move forward with tanking for the rest of the season, in hopes of landing a high draft selection in next years entry draft, as well as freeing up as much cap space as possible to potentially bring in some sought after targets in free agency this coming off season.