Every day of the month of June feels like it carries enormous weight for the future of the Toronto Blue Jays. Every win is another step closer to reaffirming that the current roster has the talent for one more playoff push. But with every loss, the uncertainty about who will remain on the roster beyond July 31 continues to fester.
And while it would be one thing for the Blue Jays to trade away their players on expiring contracts like Justin Turner and Yusei Kikuchi, letting go of Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. or both would be several orders of magnitude crazier. Both are set to hit free agency after 2025, so technically they could run it back next year and hope for better results. But now would be the time to get substantial value for both and transform the future of the roster.
Let's concentrate on Bichette, because of the pair, he might benefit more as a player from being traded. He's having a shocking down year in the batter's box and combining the pressure of escaping a slump with the pressure of slugging his team out of seller mode could end up being too much for any player to bear.
Maybe he turns it around and the Blue Jays are fine by the end of the month. But if not, any of these three destinations could be great places for Bichette to reclaim his place among the top hitting shortstops in the game.
Dodgers acquire Bo Bichette
If there's one team that we can be sure will not be too worried about giving up significant prospect capital for a struggling hitter in Bichette, it's probably the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their minor league development program regenerates prospects as if they were the many heads of the hydra in Greek mythology. And though Bichette's $9 million raise is a big part of the reason the Jays' budget is strained now, it's nothing for the Dodgers to absorb the remainder of his 2024 salary when they're already long since past the top luxury tax threshold.
With Gavin Lux still struggling mightily to establish a foothold, the Dodgers may well decide they want a more established bat to pair with Mookie Betts in the middle of the diamond. If you're trading for Bichette, you're banking on him being closer to the hitter he's been in his career (.808 OPS) than he has been so far this season (.624 OPS). And as bad as the season as a whole has been, Bichette has still been much better than Lux as of late, hitting .302 with nine extra-base hits since his season OPS reached its low on May 10.
Meanwhile, L.A. would be a fantastic landing spot for Bichette to distance himself from the pressure of his current situation in Toronto and just focus on getting his bat back in top gear. He'd likely bat sixth or seventh in most of the Dodgers' current lineups and as a two-time American League hits leader, Bichette has likely never seen as many good pitches to hit as he'd get in that situation. He could spend a year-and-a-half in Chavez Ravine, get his career fully back on track and then hit the jackpot in free agency, whether that's in L.A. or elsewhere.
Blue Jays trade Bichette to Giants
Hm, it's really starting to look like Bichette might be headed for the state of California if he's going to leave Canada, eh? But it's only the first week of June and already the San Francisco Giants, who had the second-largest offseason spending spree behind the Dodgers, are on Plan C at the shortstop position.
To be fair, that third option in 25-year-old Brett Wisely has looked very solid in 41 plate appearances, posting an .812 OPS. But given that Wisely has drawn just one walk this season and still has a career OPS of .577, the Giants would be wise to work on more concrete solutions.
It feels a little strange to propose a hypothetical trade in which a team with a 30-32 record at the time of this writing gives one of its best players to another team with a 30-33 record. But the Giants have been trying so desperately to prove their window of contention is still open after their miraculous 107-win 2021 season.
With so little luck, that it's hard to imagine them not digging their heels in and not going for it one last time at the trade deadline. And as of now, the threshold for the third wild card spot is much lower in the NL. While the Jays are 3.5 games out of a playoff spot, the Giants are merely one.
And if it helps Toronto pull the trigger, the Giants' farm system is full of potential Bichette replacements at shortstop. The obvious top option is Giants' number one prospect Marco Luciano, who is definitely still a project defensively but has raked in his 10 games in MLB this season as a 22-year-old. If the Giants aren't willing to part with Wisely, there's still No. 4 prospect Walker Martin and No. 9 prospect Maui Ahuna, both of whom would clearly need to be included as part of a larger package.
Bo Bichette goes from Blue Jays to Braves
The Cleveland Guardians almost occupied the third spot. If general manager Mike Chernoff gets approval of financial flexibility from ownership, it seems like a no-brainer. But the Guardians don't seem like they'll realistically going to pull trigger, bringing to a team we've seen pull off notable deals at every trade opportunity in the Alex Anthopoulos era: the Atlanta Braves.
In the wake of Ronald Acuña Jr.'s injury, many have been quick to assume Anthopoulos and the Braves will target outfield help, much as they did at the 2021 deadline when they rebuilt their outfield from scratch and eventually won a World Series. And while that may be true, it's becoming more clear as of late that shortstop is a bigger issue than the Braves expected it to be.
Orlando Arcia, who was an All-Star in 2023, hasn't been up to snuff, posting a putrid .253 on-base percentage that's contributing to a 20-point dip in OPS+. Although Arcia grades out much better defensively, the gap between the two with the bat could be large enough by the deadline that Atlanta decides it's worth making the call.
They've also never been a team to shy away from locking up their young position players to long-term contracts. So if they do decide to bring in Bichette, it's likely because they believe he can man shortstop at Truist Park for many years to come.
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