Did Blue Jays do enough at the deadline? Depends who you ask
For fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, the trade deadline had something for everyone.
The optimists were bolstered by the acquisitions of a couple of high-leverage relievers in Louis Varland and Seranthony Domínguez, plus the high-upside addition of starting pitcher Shane Bieber, an actual Cy Young winner, even if he hasn't pitched much in the major leagues lately ... or at all.
These were the moves of a front office in win-now mode that recognized leading the AL East as an opportunity, even if the deals cost the team some of its better prospects.
But for the skeptics, it was underwhelming. A lineup that was low on power remained so, with sluggers like Eugenio Suárez landing elsewhere. The Jays also missed out on bullpen gems like Mason Miller, who went to the San Diego Padres, and watched the New York Yankees stockpile relievers and address a pressing need by adding a third baseman who can actually play third base.
If you weren't a fan of the collected works of president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins a week ago, in other words, you are unlikely to have changed your mind.
Whatever your position on Toronto's deadline dealings, their aftermath leaves the Blue Jays looking familiar: a team that's been better on the whole than its individual parts would suggest, relying mostly on depth and versatility instead of top-end talent.
Will that be enough to not just lock down a playoff spot, but win an actual postseason game for the first time since 2016? It should be.
It's been evident for weeks that some of the Jays' best late-summer additions could come from their own roster given the imminent returns of outfielder Daulton Varsho and infielder Andrés Giménez. Anthony Santander - their big offseason acquisition who has been close to a nonfactor - isn't expected back soon, but if he can make his way into the lineup for a playoff run, his bat could be a huge help.
Sharp-eyed readers will have noticed a lot of qualifiers in that paragraph, and that's where we've been with the Blue Jays for a while. It's hard to be supremely confident about a team that has a worse run differential than the fourth-place Tampa Bay Rays (and which just lost three of four to the last-place Baltimore Orioles), but Toronto has outperformed expectations for a sustained period, and a balanced roster should be more slump-proof than one that relies on major contributions from a couple of superstars.
None of Toronto's deadline moves deserve more ifs and maybes than the deal for Bieber, who arrives from the Cleveland Guardians having pitched all of 12 major-league innings since 2023 and none this year. A Cy Young winner in 2020, he's rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and needs to continue that process before appearing with the Jays, but some version of the old Bieber could shoot to the top of Toronto's playoff rotation. He could also encounter a setback and never appear in a Blue Jays uniform, since his contract has a player option for the 2026 season. Atkins essentially went out and got a lottery ticket.
The Blue Jays began this season as a last-place team coming out of another disappointing winter in which they were linked to a superstar - this time, with Juan Soto playing the role of Shohei Ohtani - only to watch him take someone else's bags of money. They responded by improbably putting together some impressive months from May onward, keyed by an offensive lineup that's the antithesis of the high-power, high-strikeout archetype favored by many of their rivals. Their starting rotation is similarly good but not great, with a bunch of veterans who are capable of delivering a quality start on any given night but also liable to get lit up from time to time.
This week didn't change any of that.
The questions that were being asked about the Jays a month ago are still valid: Can they be a true contender without a major power bat, or without a true ace?
Their deadline tinkering gives the Jays a better shot at holding off the Yankees atop the AL East, and the return of their own players from injury will help too. But they still don't look like a team that will terrify playoff opponents, since they lack the kind of guys who often play outsized roles in a short series. That helps explain why Toronto, while currently favored to win the division, has worse odds than the Yankees (and Detroit Tigers) to win the American League.
Good thing for Jays fans, then, that playoff baseball is a crapshoot.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.