After a three-game sweep of the Red Sox, in which they beat Boston 40-10, the Jays are second in the AL East and hold the first wild card spot in the American League. MLB Insider’s Buster Olney predicts the Jays will strengthen at least two critical areas of the roster before next Tuesday’s deadline. What should the Jays target at the trade deadline? The Blue Jays offense scored 40 runs in three games against the Red Sox over the weekend. With their bats heating up, should the Jays be looking for other help heading into the trade deadline? MLB Insider’s Steve Phillips joins SportsCentre to discuss. “They’re going to get a left-handed hitter of some kind, as we’ve been talking about since the beginning of the year, to try to balance the lineup and get more favorable matchups for the team,” Olney said, per TSN’s First. Above. “I don’t know if that’s going to be Josh Bell, who’s hitting switches, or if it’s going to be someone else. We feel that we are still waiting for the available players to be fully determined by the vendors.” Bell, a first baseman for the Washington Nationals, is hitting .302 with 13 home runs and 51 RBIs in 97 games this season. In 1,994 career at-bats hitting from the left side, Bell has a .275 average with 91 home runs and 330 RBI. Olney adds that the Jays will also be looking for a reliever to add to a bullpen that ranks 19th in the majors with a 4.05 ERA and has 17 saves, fifth most in the league. “I believe too [the Blue Jays] they are going to get a reliever. “I think every prospect is going to get a reliever because the way teams look at relievers now is kind of how NFL teams look at running backs, as they’re effectively disposable,” Olney added. “And so if somebody has a reliever that’s good right now, David Bedar of the Pirates is one, Joe Mantiply of the Diamondbacks is another, those teams don’t see those players as building blocks, they see them as assets and they want to exploit their value as soon as possible. “I think the Jays are going to get at least a reliever and a lefty batter.” Should the Jays be all in on Juan Soto? Bryan Hayes, Dave Feschuk and Frank Corrado are joined by TSN Blue Jays reporter Scott Mitchell to discuss where the Blue Jays are at the all-star break and discuss whether the team should enter the Juan Soto trade sweepstakes . The Blue Jays have also been rumored as a possible destination for Nationals superstar Juan Soto, who recently rejected a $440 million contract from the team. However, Olney doesn’t think Toronto is among the favorites to land the 23-year-old slugger. “The Blue Jays certainly have the prospects that could make a deal. But Mike Rizzo, the Nationals general manager, is known among his peers as a guy who focuses on a very small group of players,” Olney said. “He’s going to go into a trade deadline like he did last year when Max Scherzer and Trea Turner were available, and he’s going to say, ‘These are the prospects in this particular organization that I want, and I’m going to keep going back until I get them. agreement with this group”. The Blue Jays have four prospects in MLB Pipeline’s Top 100: catcher Gabriel Moreno (No. 6), shortstop Orelvis Martinez (No. 36), starting pitcher Ricky Tiedemann (No. 63) and infielder Jordan Groshans (No. .84). However, Olney doesn’t think Rizzo has his sights set on the Jays’ pool of young prospects. “So we can think of all the reasons why Soto would be great for the Blue Jays and look at their prospects and say, maybe this team would be available to them, but it really only matters what Mike Rizzo wants Olney said. “Right now, I don’t think the Blue Jays are the favorite.” Olney adds that five teams are currently in the mix for Soto, including the Jays’ AL East rivals, the New York Yankees. “The team with the most motivation is without a doubt the San Diego Padres. In theory they have a pack of players to make a deal. The Cardinals are probably the team with the deepest group of Major League ready players that the Nationals might be interested in,” Olney said. “The Mariners are sleepers because they have a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 2001, I think they’re all in. “And you can never ignore the Dodgers and the Yankees. Although my opinion is that Rizzo does not trade well with the Yankees. There is not much commercial relationship there. So this is good news for the Blue Jays. I think he’s more likely to go somewhere other than the Yankees.”
