The Toronto Blue Jays are a .500 team so far, and that’s relatively indicative of the general mood around the club.
Morale has undoubtedly improved since the Blue Jays extended Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earlier this month. But the big dogs in Toronto’s lineup, including Guerrero, haven’t been doing their jobs to help power the team to wins.
In fact, “power” in this case can be taken literally. As one baseball writer explains, it’s the Blue Jays’ lack of pop at the plate that’s holding them back, and that could lead to some big changes.
On Friday, Just Baseball’s Eric Treuden suggested that the Blue Jays could be on the hunt for a power bat at the trade deadline, due to the struggles of the most common top three hitters in their order.
Here’s what Treuden had to say:
“To put it simply, the Blue Jays have a decent starting lineup but there’s far too much pressure on the trio of Bo Bichette, Anthony Santander, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to prop the team up with home runs. To this point, this group has a combined three home runs and the team as a whole sits 29th in the game with 13 home runs.
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“The Blue Jays are another team that’s going to need to get bold at the trade deadline. They proved that they have deep pockets by locking up Guerrero for life, but they need to continue to show they mean business by landing a big bat (or even two!) at the deadline.”
There frankly aren’t a ton of “power bats” who currently project to be available. The Chicago White Sox’s Luis Robert Jr. is mired in a huge slump, and most of the other hitters on expiring contracts profile more as contact or speed guys.
But as the season progresses and sellers start to reveal themselves, there’s always a chance the Blue Jays could find the missing piece needed to jump-start their offense.
More MLB: Blue Jays ‘reason for pessimism’ spelled out by MLB insider amid sub-.500 start
