TORONTO – With time on the clock expiring, the Blue Jays made a last-minute trade with the Minnesota Twins Thursday, acquiring reliever Louis Varland and right-handed hitting utility player Ty France for outfielder Alan Roden and pitching prospect Kendry Rojas just ahead of the 6 p.m. ET trade deadline.
The deal completes a busy deadline for the Blue Jays, who acquired reliever Seranthony Dominguez from the Orioles Tuesday and added rehabbing right-hander Shane Bieber from the Cleveland Guardians Thursday morning.
The three trades bolster the Blue Jays’ bullpen, add considerable intrigue to their starting rotation and deepen their position player group while costing the farm system Roden as well as three promising young pitchers: Rojas plus Khal Stephen, who went to Cleveland for Bieber, and Juaron Watts-Brown, who went to Baltimore for Dominguez.
In a smaller trade, the Blue Jays also acquired double-A catcher Brandon Valenzuela for Will Wagner in a deal that sends Wagner to the ever-intriguing Padres, frees up a 40-man roster spot in Toronto and adds catching depth at a time that Alejandro Kirk is sidelined on the seven-day concussion injured list.
As always, it’ll take months to determine whether the moves work as intended, but this deadline fits the pattern established by team president Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins. They’ve been busy every time they’ve been in position to buy, with at least three trades completed and at least three pitchers acquired in each of those seasons. This time was no exception.
Since Bieber is now rehabbing his way back from Tommy John surgery, he’s at least a couple of weeks away from making a major-league impact. He may be at Rogers Centre as soon as Friday, at which point he can reveal more about his expected timeline.
But Dominguez has already made an impact with two scoreless innings against his former team and Varland and France could be activated as soon as Friday’s series opener against the Royals if travel schedules permit. At that point, Varland, a 27-year-old who’s still five and a half years away from free agency, could join Dominguez in setting up for closer Jeff Hoffman.
With a 2.02 ERA and 47 strikeouts compared to just 13 walks in 49 innings with the Twins, Varland is in the midst of a career-best season. France, on the other hand, has been struggling, with just six home runs and a .678 OPS in 101 games this season, including a .680 OPS against left-handed pitching.
As usual, the Blue Jays checked on a wide range of prominent players ahead of the deadline, exploring possible fits for the likes of Joe Ryan, Ryan Helsley, Steven Kwan, MacKenzie Gore and many others.
With Dominguez, Bieber, Varland and France in place, the Blue Jays are a better team now than they were three days ago. How much better likely depends on Bieber, easily the highest-upside play among the four.
