In the interest of not burying the lede, the Blue Jays made no trades today at the deadline. There was a point where something gained traction that was never mentioned in the media, but it fell apart and never came back together.
Anthopoulos said he was working on a deal late last week but it fell apart. Another potential deal broke down yesterday morning. #BlueJays
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 31, 2013
AA: "I don't even know if I want to say that we came close. I would say we had some traction. ... ultimately it wasn't going to make sense."
— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) July 31, 2013
Not all hope is lost though as there is still the possibility of waiver trades after the deadline and deals to be picked up and finished in the off-season:
Anthopoulos said he was working on a deal late last week but it fell apart. Another potential deal broke down yesterday morning. #BlueJays
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 31, 2013
As you can imagine, Alex Anthopoulos is intent on making trades to better this team before taking another run at the postseason next year:
AA: "There's no question we need to make improvements, we need to get better and the results in the standings speak for themselves."
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 31, 2013
The two areas that the team wanted to strengthen through trade, as expected, were the second base position and the starting rotation:
Anthopoulos said the two areas he explored the most was starting pitching and middle infield (aka second base). #bluejays
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 31, 2013
The issue of why no relievers were traded was brought up and Anthopoulos side stepped the question a bit and said the market was pretty quiet:
AA on Oliver: Lots of supply, little demand in LHP reliever market. "You didn't see a lot of left-handed relievers traded." #bluejays
— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) July 31, 2013
AA: "There were quite a number of LH relievers available through trade, many with expiring contracts, and you just didn't see them move."
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) July 31, 2013
So there's another trade deadline in the books, a extremely quiet one on the Blue Jays front. Around the league, Baltimore acquired Bud Norris from Houston and the Padres traded for Ian Kennedy from Arizona. Aside from the Peavy three team-trade last night, not many game-changing players were moved leading to most contenders heading for the stretch run with the same pieces they had when they started the year.
How do you feel about the trade deadline for the Blue Jays?
Hat tip to Minor Leaguer for the title idea.