BALTIMORE — The Toronto Blue Jays carried a sense of foreboding last year as they arrived at Camden Yards for four games straddling the trade deadline. Their selloff had already started and over three swamp-assy days, Yusei Kikuchi and Justin Turner one day and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Trevor Richards and Kevin Kiermaier the next were also dealt, capping a run of eight trades from July 26-30, all while across the diamond the Baltimore Orioles were busy bolstering themselves en route to a wild-card berth.
“You go into every season with so much optimism that you don’t ever think you’ll get to that point,” Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman remembers of that grim series. “But we all knew probably weeks before that something was going to happen and it probably wasn’t just going to be one or two guys, it was going to be a handful of guys. It was tough. Especially losing Kikuchi, losing (Danny Jansen). Obviously Jano was here for a really long time, it was unfortunate. You definitely feel a lot more comfortable being in this position than the other.”
This position, 364 days later, is a near-total juxtaposition, the Blue Jays buying rather than selling as they returned to the Maryland mugginess, the Orioles selling after an unexpected collapse, and another four-games-in-three-days set, this one opening with Baltimore delivering an 11-4 spanking Monday.
Chris Bassitt only made it through 2.1 innings and left down 6-3, surrendering back-to-back homers to Cedric Mullins and Coby Mayo in the second and a two-run double to Adley Rutschman in the third among the seven hits he allowed. The Blue Jays (63-43) were in damage-control mode from that point forward, even as Bo Bichette added four hits to establish a new team record with hits in nine consecutive at-bats.
A four-run fifth keyed by trade candidate Ramon Laureano’s two-run homer pushed the game out of reach as manager John Schneider had to run through five relievers ahead of a day-night doubleheader Tuesday, with one of Easton Lucas or Lazardo Estrada expected to start the opener, followed by Eric Lauer in the nightcap.
Compounding matters was George Springer getting hit on the side of the head by a 96 m.p.h. fastball by Kade Strowd in the ninth, a frightening moment that silenced a crowd of 20,176. Fans gave him a standing ovation as he walked off the field with assistance.
So, far from ideal at the tail end of 14 games in 13 days right out of the all-star break ahead of an off-day Thursday, when the trade deadline hits at 6 p.m. ET.
As all that played out in the field, in the background, the Blue Jays continued to work a trade market building toward a burst that could start Wednesday and carry into Thursday. Somewhat of note was the Detroit Tigers’ acquisition of back-end starter Chris Paddack along with salary-dump reliever Randy Dobnak from the Minnesota Twins for catcher Enrique Jimenez, an intriguing 19-year-old in the rookie-level Florida Complex League with lots of raw tools and with lots of development to come.
It’s far from cheap, but it also doesn’t seem like a gouge, something executives involved in trade talks say sellers are still trying to do to shopping contenders. For now, leverage still lies with the sellers, but each day closer to the deadline, they need to scale down their asks, something that may have started with the Paddack deal.
In the Blue Jays clubhouse, meanwhile, the action is being followed from afar, with very different feelings from those of a year ago.
“I love it, especially if you’re on a good team,” Gausman said of trade deadline time. “It’s a lot different if you’re one of the bottom-feeders and know that you’re probably going to lose some friends and teammates, like we did last year. But this is what you hope for as a player, to be in a position where your team is going to add and hopefully add impact, whether it’s a pitcher, a bat, whatever. I was with Baltimore in ’14 when we added Andrew Miller and man, that was such a jolt to the whole team, bringing in a guy of his calibre. So I’ve seen first-hand what it can do. It’s exciting, for sure.”
