Blue Jays Notes: Deadline, Vlad, Horwitz

The Blue Jays enter the summer as one of the most fascinating teams to monitor ahead of next month’s trade deadline. Sitting with a disappointing 29-32 record that has them in the AL East cellar, Toronto could upend the trade market if names like Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Danny Jansen, Chris Bassitt, Yusei Kikuchi and others eventually are made available to contending teams. They’ve not yet reached the point where that’s under consideration, however. GM Ross Atkins recently went on record to quash such rumblings, stating that it “doesn’t make any sense” for the Jays to consider moving Bichette and/or Guerrero.

There’s some logic behind that sentiment, to be sure. The Jays may be buried with a 14-game deficit in the division, but they’re also only four games back of the third AL Wild Card spot at the moment. That’s despite the fact that key bats like Bichette, Guerrero, George Springer and offseason signee Justin Turner have underperformed. (Turner had a blistering April but fell into perhaps the worst slump of his career in May.) It hasn’t manifested yet, but the talent is certainly there for the Jays’ offense to go on a run and surge back into the playoff picture.

Any fans hoping for a proactive trade to boost the offense or an early waving of the white flag appear to be in for a letdown, however. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Jays aren’t planning to make any firm calls on their deadline approach until after the All-Star break.

Some could read that as an indication that if the Jays’ standing in the Wild Card race dramatically falls off, perhaps they’ll reconsider moving Bichette and/or Guerrero. While there are few absolutes in the game — the Nationals famously traded Juan Soto less than two months after GM Mike Rizzo publicly proclaimed he would not do so, for instance — the overwhelming majority of instances where an executive goes on record to publicly downplay such a possibility tend to play out just as the GM or president in question indicates. That said, with Jansen, Kikuchi, Bassitt, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Yimi Garcia, Kevin Kiermaier and others all signed/controlled only through this season or next, the Jays would still have plenty of attractive trade chips if they do end up as sellers.

That All-Star break target for a final call gives the current roster about six weeks to right the ship and prove that there is indeed a playoff-caliber club here — as was the general expectation heading into the season. The Jays are already getting creative in ways to change up their defensive alignment in an effort to get more bats in the lineup, giving Guerrero some starts at third base for the first time since 2019. It’s not an everyday arrangement, but manager John Schneider has suggested Guerrero could play there every five or six games or so, giving Toronto an avenue to have Guerrero and Justin Turner at the corners with both Jansen and Alejandro Kirk in the lineup (one at DH, the other at catcher).

Some may wonder why the Jays don’t simply play Turner at third base with more regularity, given that it’s been his primary position in an excellent big league career. But the 39-year-old Turner has made 11 starts at the hot corner between Boston and Toronto over the past two seasons and committed a glaring five errors in that time. While Guerrero isn’t going to provide plus defense himself, it seems the Jays prefer him to Turner from a defensive standpoint. Turner hasn’t played third base for the Jays since May 7.

Moving Guerrero to third base on occasion isn’t the only defensive shuffle that could be on the horizon, though. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith points out that Toronto has begun getting first baseman Spencer Horwitz reps at second base down in Triple-A and could soon look to him as a second base option at the big league level. Horwitz has now made 11 starts and tallied 87 innings at the position. It’s not an overwhelming amount of experience, but with Horwitz boasting an outrageous .332/.455/.510 slash in 255 plate appearances at the Triple-A level, the Jays are understandably seeking more ways to get him into the lineup.

The added flexibility will give Schneider some more ways to creatively construct his lineup. The ostensibly looming promotion of Horwitz will require Toronto to jettison one position player from the roster, and Toronto has a number of underperforming options to consider. Daniel Vogelbach has been limited to DH against right-handed pitching and managed only a .203/.282/.328 slash on the season. The aforementioned Kiermaier is hitting only .202/.254/.303, though he remains an elite outfield defender. Cavan Biggio’s .200/.323/.293 marks his fourth straight year of middling results at the dish.

However the Jays choose to proceed, getting Horwitz onto the big league roster in the near future seems prudent, particularly with Guerrero and Bichette beginning to turn things around at the plate. Guerrero entered today’s game hitting .356/.433/.477 over his past 150 plate appearances and has already launched a three-run homer. Bichette’s slow start lasted longer, but he entered play Thursday with a .303/.324/.470 batting line over his past 16 games (68 plate appearances).