Although it’s unclear how much more the Toronto Blue Jays will spend when the off-season resumes, cold hard cash isn’t the only asset they can bring to bear to plug their holes.
The team has a rare resource to bring to bear in its roster-building effort: a surplus of catchers — none of them older than 27, all of them with at least three years of control. The impending arrival of blue-chip prospect, and presumed catcher-of-the-future, Gabriel Moreno means keeping Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk, and Reese McGuire seems like overkill.
As important as depth is, stockpiling more MLB-calibre backstops (with no positional versatility) than you can possibly use simply isn’t good resource allocation, and other teams have taken notice. While the market has thinned slightly with the Chicago Cubs, Miami Marlins, and Pittsburgh Pirates addressing their needs prior to the lockout, as Ben Nicholson-Smith pointed out in his piece on Tuesday there are still plenty of possible landing spots for Jansen, Kirk, and McGuire.
With that in mind, we thought it would be fun to cook up some realistic trade hypotheticals involving the Blue Jays catchers. Keep in mind these deals are using the backstops as centrepieces rather than blockbusters that include them — so don’t expect to see a José Ramirez trade.
Option 1: Moving Captain Kirk
Blue Jays trade C Alejandro Kirk to the Seattle Mariners for LHP Brandon Williamson and LHP Anthony Misiewicz
Why Seattle would want Kirk: The Mariners’ catching situation has uncertainty in both the long and short term. Tom Murphy should be fine as the starter, but he did take a step back from his 2019 breakout last season and he’ll turn 31 in early April. Steamer is projecting him for a 0.9 WAR season in 2022, which is hardly inspiring.
Even if Seattle sees Murphy as a strong option he’s only under team control through 2023 and the club’s farm system lacks a clear successor. In 2022 they also have the issue of Luis Torrens projecting to serve as the primary backup despite his appalling defensive numbers (-19 DRS, – 12.7 Framing Runs and a 17% CS rate in 800.1 innings). Torrens wields an interesting bat, but he’s better served as a DH, pinch hitter, and occasional contributor on the infield corners.
Kirk would solidify the Mariners catching core in 2022 while pushing Murphy and auditioning for a role as a long-term starter. As a bonus, he’d reunite with Robbie Ray after the tandem had such remarkable success together in 2021.
What the Blue Jays get: One of the Mariners’ greatest organizational strengths is starting pitching depth in the upper minors. If one of their top-five starters went down they’d be able to call on a cavalcade of youngsters including Justus Sheffield, Matt Brash, George Kirby, and Brandon Williamson.
High-end starting depth is one of the Blue Jays’ major weaknesses and the club’s fifth starter spot has yet to be claimed. Williamson could hit the ground running in Triple-A after a strong showing in Double-A last season (12.56 K/9, 3.48 ERA, 3.24 FIP) or even challenge for the last spot in the team’s Opening Day rotation if injuries strike. The six-foot-six southpaw has a big fastball and bat-missing curveball. As is often the case with pitchers of his profile, command is the biggest question mark with Williamson, but his ceiling is significant and he tends to rank at the back end of the Mariners’ top 10 prospects. Brash would also be a solid option here too as Sheffield’s major-league numbers are brutal and Kirby probably has too much prospect pedigree to pry away.
Misiewicz is a left-handed reliever with four years of team control. In 74.2 career MLB innings, he’s posted a strong 3.58 FIP but struggles with contact management have led to a higher ERA (4.46). The 27-year-old has an intriguing repertoire that contains a 94.3 mph fastball, a curveball with 91st percentile spin, and a cutter that helps him work the edges of the plate. He would be a candidate to break the MLB bullpen out of camp, or provide high-level depth considering he has two options.
Option 2: Jansen goes west
Blue Jays trade C Danny Jansen to the San Francisco Giants for RHP Tyler Beede, RHP Zack Littell, and LHP Nick Swiney
Why San Francisco would want Jansen: The retirement of Buster Posey has made the Giants a catcher-needy team for the first time in more than a decade. They have a logical replacement in Joey Bart, but the 24-year-old has looked utterly lost at the plate in the majors, and posted a troubling strikeout rate at Triple-A.
The Giants are hoping to compete in an ultra-competitive NL West and Jansen could be a floor raiser at catcher while giving them an insurance policy in case Bart falters — either in the short or long term. San Francisco could also use a move for Jansen to jettison backup Curt Casali before his arbitration salary (projected to be about $3 million) becomes guaranteed, and save some money to further improve their 2022 roster.
What the Blue Jays get: The Giants roster is short on obvious trade candidates, so Toronto would have to settle for a bit of a smorgasbord return.
Beede is a name familiar to Blue Jays fans considering he was the franchise’s first-round pick in 2011. His career has been a winding path and a combination of injuries and minor-league struggles resulted in him debuting as a 25-year-old in 2018 and an MLB track record wherein 93.1 percent of innings in the majors came in a single season (2019). For all of the red flags, Beede has a dynamite curveball that elicited a 50 percent whiff rate as he worked out of the rotation in 2019, and a fastball that sits about 94 mph as a starter — and plays up in relief. The range of outcomes for Beede is massive, but he’s got “Pete Walker reclamation project” written all over him.
Littell is a more stable asset who gave the Giants 61.2 innings of 2.92 ERA ball out of the bullpen last season. He’s got a standard 95 mph fastball-hard slider repertoire, but did dabble with a splitter in 2021, which might become a bigger factor going forward. Littell wouldn’t be a lock to break camp in the Blue Jays bullpen, but he does have an option and three years of control after 2021.
Swiney is a prospect sweetener with an extremely limited minor-league track record, but a promising changeup and curveball. The 2020 second-rounder doesn’t throw hard, but he could be a starter if everything breaks right and he tends to live in the late teens or early twenties on Giants prospect lists.
Option 3: McGuire gets to catch Shohei Ohtani
Blue Jays trade C Reese McGuire to the Los Angeles Angeles for INF Michael Stefanic and RHP Oliver Ortega
Why the Angels would want McGuire: While the Angels have no reason to be unhappy with Max Stassi as their starting catcher, backup Matt Thaiss is a bat-first player with just over 100 innings of MLB experience behind the plate. McGuire would provide some defensive certainty and depth for a franchise that has continually failed to acquire it in the Mike Trout era.
What the Blue Jays get: McGuire’s trade value is limited by his extremely low offensive ceiling, which means the Blue Jays aren’t getting top prospects or surefire MLB contributors here.
Stefanic is an interesting name because he was an undrafted free agent who didn’t stand out in the minor leagues until last season. Coming into 2021 he had three home runs as a pro, and he started out with similar punchlessness to begin the year with a single round tripper in 21 Double-A games. When he arrived at Triple-A, though, he found his power. Stefanic hit 16 homers in 104 games and posted a .334/.408/.555 line with the Salt Lake Bees. He already makes contact consistently and has the positional versatility to play second and third. If he can replicate his mini power breakout, the 25-year-old could be a useful bench player.
Ortega is a dart-throw reliever who has a big 97 mph fastball but hasn’t been particularly productive since he left Single-A. He entered 2021 with some prospect shine, but struggled across three levels, including the majors where he looked rough in a 9.1 inning cameo. Ortega might be the sort of player the Angels overvalue, but they could just as easily be tired of his stalled progression and happy to offload him.
What realistic trade scenarios could Blue Jays’ catching depth open up?
Source: Pinas Ko Mahal
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