The Toronto Blue Jays are currently 26-27, third in the American League East. They are seven games back from the New York Yankees and have struggled as of late.
The team is middle of the pack for offense, but its pitching has let them down so far this season.
Toronto ranks 23rd in Major League Baseball with a team ERA of 4.12, and rank 26th for starting pitching ERA at 4.43.
Garrett Kerman of ClutchPoints devised a trade proposal that would help fix Toronto’s pitching woes.
In this proposal, the San Diego Padres would trade former All-Star pitcher Dylan Cease to the Blue Jays in exchange for left-hander Ricky Tiedemann (Blue Jays’ No. 2 prospect) and righty Yariel Rodriguez.
From San Diego’s perspective, trading Cease now makes a lot of sense. He will be an unrestricted free agent after this season and given how the market for starting pitchers has grown tremendously, he will garner a lot of interest and money in the offseason if he tests free agency.
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Tiedemann is a promising young lefty who has dealt with injuries but is still perceived to be a top-end starter when he makes it to the big leagues. Rodriguez is a hard-throwing reliever who could add even more stability to a stable Padres bullpen.
This move wouldn’t leave the Padres rotation in a bad spot, as they would still have Michael King, Nick Pivetta, Yu Darvish, Randy Vasquez and Matt Waldron.
From Toronto’s perspective, acquiring a pitcher of Cease’s caliber to pair with Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt and Jose Berrios is imperative if the team wants a real shot at the postseason.
Cease, 29, is 1-3 with a 4.58 ERA in 11 starts this season. While the ERA is a little high, Cease has consistently been one of the premier strikeout pitchers in MLB. He has struck out over 200 batters in each of the last four seasons.
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