TORONTO — Before Joey Loperfido left the Houston Astros following his trade to the Toronto Blue Jays last summer, Kyle Tucker gave him a pair of batting gloves. Take them to George Springer, the star outfielder instructed his departing teammate, and use them to help break the ice in the new clubhouse. That was the plan until he arrived at Camden Yards as his new team was completing an eight-deals-in-five-days selloff.
“I remember walking in and I met KK (Kevin Kiermaier), I was meeting other people, and they were saying, ‘Oh, I’m traded, you don’t need to remember my name, don’t worry about it,’” Loperfido recalled. “There were like four lineup cards. People were walking in the door, out the door. It was hectic.”
A year later, the 26-year-old outfielder, acquired with infielder Will Wagner and right-hander Jake Bloss for Yusei Kikuchi, is contributing to a Blue Jays team at the opposite end of the spectrum. At 60-42, they head into an intriguing four-game series at the Detroit Tigers (60-43) as contenders for best record in the American League, along with the Houston Astros (60-42), and they’re working the market to buy, rather than sell, ahead of the July 31 trade deadline.
Loperfido, with a home run and six RBIs in 11 games since being recalled when Andres Gimenez hit the injured list with a left ankle sprain, and Wagner, who had a pair of two-RBI games during a weekend sweep of the San Francisco Giants, have each chipped in to the greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts flow carrying the club.
Though Bloss underwent season-ending elbow surgery in May, the trio’s addition, along with the other prospects acquired during that chaotic five-day stretch and the June 12 pickup of righty Braydon Fisher from the Los Angeles Dodgers for Cavan Biggio, helped fortify the foundation’s talent base.
Fisher has already provided nearly a win of value in 28.1 innings over 28 appearances while Jonatan Clase, who came over with minor-league catcher Jacob Sharp from the Mariners for Yimi Garcia, delivered important hits in victories May 11 at Seattle, May 22 versus the Padres, June 9 at St. Louis and June 24 at Cleveland during a 34-game sample.
Together with some of the minor-leaguers acquired and other internal developments, the Blue Jays now have, in the words of a scout from a rival club, “a lot more inventory” they lacked a year ago to work with, be it for big-league help or use in trades.
That’s why, in reflecting on the team’s haul a year later, manager John Schneider says the 2024 trade deadline “has kind of played out as we had hoped.”
“When you pivot last year and you bring in players that are pretty close and they had the opportunity to come play here, that helps to prepare for this year,” Schneider continued. “That’s kind of how we planned it, in a year where it didn’t go the way we wanted it to here. So getting them experience, playing every day in the minor leagues, helped them a lot after having exposure here. That was our goal. It’s no secret. It was what can help right now, meaning in the next 12 months, so it’s nice to see it unfold.”
How much more opportunity Loperfido and Wagner get in their current stints is uncertain, as Daulton Varsho is bound for triple-A Buffalo to continue his rehab work, with a return from the injured list possible early next week. Gimenez, meanwhile, hit on the field Wednesday for the first time since spraining the ankle, felt good afterwards and was due to begin running Thursday.
Whatever happens, Loperfido, selected in the seventh round out of Duke, and Wagner, picked in the 18th round out of Liberty University, continue to walk the same path since the Astros took them in the 2021 draft.
“It’s funny because we played against each other a lot in college, too, so I already knew of Joey and then we got drafted together, so we just got closer with our friendship throughout that,” said Wagner. “Going through all these levels together and seeing the ups and downs and how we’ve overcome them, it’s been pretty cool.”
A sentiment echoed by Loperfido.
“I said to Will the other day that we’re coming up on our five-year anniversary of playing together,” he relayed. “To see him having the clutch hits he’s had the past week, it’s awesome. He flexed at the dugout the other day and I said to Davis (Schneider), ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen Will get that hyped up after a double.’
“For myself, coming over last year and not putting my best foot forward play-wise at the end of the year, to be able to just come in now, we’re in a good spot, the team’s winning and I’m contributing and helping us do that, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
That opportunity was borne out of the deadline a year ago, when Loperfido was up with the Astros and Wagner was enjoying an off-day for triple-A Sugar Land.
“It was crazy because I didn’t think I had a chance to get traded,” said Wagner. “I never heard one rumour about me. I was playing video games at the time and the guy I was playing with, Shay Whitcomb (now up with the Astros), thought he was going to get traded over me. It was definitely like a shock, but it was a good experience for sure.”
The Blue Jays’ rebound has been an ever better one.
When Wagner debuted last Aug. 12 at the Los Angeles Angels, an electric three-hit effort, “it didn’t feel like a rebuild at all,” he said.
“It felt like we had the pieces we wanted, it was just more about, let’s see how the last month and a half of the season goes, and let’s transfer that over the next season,” Wagner continued. “You could just tell in spring training these guys knew that we were way better than last year. You always want to be part of something like this.”
Loperfido, who played his first game with the Blue Jays the day after the deadline, going 1-for-5 against the Orioles, wasn’t sure what to expect when he initially arrived, but “I knew I was going to play.”
“I remember the dynamic with a lot of the young guys that had gotten there, me, Wags eventually, you were just getting a lot of run,” Loperfido continued. “At that point they were trying to kind of see what they had with everybody they had gotten. (This season) it’s totally different. And to be honest with you, I put more pressure on myself last year when we were X-however-many games out of first place and not really competing, than I am right now.
“Right now, it’s all hands on deck. You’re going to do whatever you’re asked to do to help the team win a game that night, whatever it is. And to me, that’s less pressure than like, hey, you got two months to show us what you’re made of and we’ll assess at the end of the season. And it’s a lot more fun here. The situation that the team’s in, the series here against the Yankees, you don’t really have the time and energy to think about your own mechanics or you know how you might feel at the plate. You’re in that compete mode every night trying to win, which I think is an easier way to play and you end up playing a little bit better.”
One year after a gutting deadline, the same applies to the Blue Jays all around.
