Blue Jays predicted fire sale might actually be a good idea for a $100M reason originally appeared on The Sporting News.
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Toronto Blue Jays are in danger of heading into the MLB Trade Deadline season as sellers rather than buyers. At 16-21, there is a very real chance they wind up as sellers.
If they are sellers, there are plenty of players they could trade, enough to consider a possible sell-off a fire sale.
Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller predicts the Blue Jays will conduct the biggest fire sale this season, despite many eyes on the Houston Astros as a possible deadline seller.
“However, Toronto is our pick for the team most likely to put a bunch of desirable assets on the trade block,” Miller writes.
Shipping off a ton of good players at the deadline would be a tough blow for this Blue Jays team, coming off a season in which they were one out from winning a World Series. But, this fire sale might actually be a good idea for a $100 million-plus reason.
A Blue Jays fire sale might be a good thing for the franchise
Why would a fire sale make sense for this team? It’s a World Series and postseason contender, so selling off some of their best assets would certainly mean that 2026 is a total disaster.
There are 10 players worth keeping a close eye on this year if the Blue Jays are sellers: Kevin Gausman, George Springer, Daulton Varsho, Shane Bieber, Eric Lauer, Max Scherzer, Yimi Garcia, Myles Straw, Jeff Hoffman, and Jesus Sanchez.
Miller called out all 10 as possible trade candidates, and also provided a reason why trading all of them would make sense.
“Those 10 players have a combined 2026 luxury tax hit of $107.4M,” Miller writes. “If they were to trade all 10 away at the deadline, it would trim their payroll by about $35M and reduce their tax bill by about $24M.”
MORE: Don Mattingly and Preston Mattingly make father-son MLB history for Phillies
While trading away players at the deadline would be a sign of things going very wrong this season, if these 10 were all dealt amid a massive sell-off, the Blue Jays could save nearly $60 million.
That saved money could lead to big signings in the future to replace those departing veterans who are all, besides Hoffman and Sanchez, set to be free agents after 2026 anyway.
Also, add in that the Blue Jays could get back some premium prospects for selling all of those players, and there’s a chance the Blue Jays build a contender next year while also holding onto a large prospect haul.
Obviously, the Blue Jays’ ideal scenario would be to be a contender once more. But, if they do sell at the deadline, there is reason to have optimism if they can conduct a massive fire sale by the trade deadline.
More MLB news:
- Three ways Pirates’ Paul Skenes could lose NL Cy Young Award
- Aaron Judge makes baseball history never done before by Yankees player
- Reds’ Elly De La Cruz makes baseball history not done in last 126 years
- 5 reasons to believe in Jordan Walker’s breakout for Cardinals
- Pete Crow-Armstrong is still struggling to hit well for the Cubs