Jays Trade Rumours Escalating... Report Reveals Wild Move | Toronto Blue Jays News

Today's trade rumors are starting to pick up once again, and as things continue to escalate for the Toronto Blue Jays and with the offseason starting to really ramp up, an interesting name has entered the sweepstakes following a new report, and it has many fans super intrigued. We'll break down this player and discuss what it means for the team going forward, as well as a ton of other updates to go over on this episode. As Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro prepare for something big, as November is just around the corner, and multiple reports have revealed that's when things are going to be the hottest. Before we get into it all, be a quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. You guys have been an absolute beast with the support. Folks, today we're going to be talking about a trade. Now, some interesting reports started to fly over the last couple of weeks surrounding Eli De La Cruz and the Jays. I mean, obviously, they're going to be involved in a lot of these heavy-duty trade conversations, especially when it potentially involves a big extension. But I want to start with this report from a reporter. Now, it is interesting. You can see here the Red Sox have had discussions with the Reds about Eli De La Cruz but couldn't match up, per Sean McAdam. But here's a more important part for us Jays fans. the Reds aren't inclined to move him but are willing to listen to offers so this is pretty important because obviously the Red Sox trying to trade and enter you know Eli's rival the Jays are at a point now where their farm system is actually pretty decent they have a ton of money that they can you know spend to make some moves and all of a sudden now they're just in a very very good spot right I think they're in a very good spot to make a big splash if needed and one of the areas is that middle infield and if they're willing to listen to offers on Eli De La Cruz i would be pretty intrigued and you can also see this from Damien here the thing about Eli De La Cruz is he's my favorite player in the entire sport and if the jays had a brewer dodgers rays farm level system i'd empty the entire clip literally for this freak of nature so i do want to preface this by saying right like it would require almost every prospect in the book like he is that good he's that young he is a superstar now would the jays want to give up their entire farm for a guy like Elly De La Cruz we can dive into it but he had a real breakout season last year if you want to call it that and you could see here i mean he put up over a five WAR 79 RBIs 30 home runs he would provide and whether you play him at you probably play him at short because of his arm value and move Andres Gimenez back to second maybe the problem with that is he's not a great defender 17th percentile uh in defensive WAR not an amazing defender but his arm is so good if you can maybe move him to second base but then it kind of gets rid of the arm it's an interesting slope surrounding where you'd actually play him but you could see here his uh his defense according to dWAR isn't great when you look at Baseball Savant, 91st percentile and outs above average. So depending who you ask, some people will tell you he's a great defender. Some metrics will say he's not that great of a defender. Regardless of that, you're probably putting him at short because of his arm strength. Right now, Jimenez is on a next, on kind of another level, but 91st percentile, outs above average is very, very impressive. And you can look at the whole card here. He is unbelievable, right? He's only 24 years old, entering his age 25 season, had a great defensive season by his metrics and overall pretty good. You have him at short you have Andres Jimenez at second you're instantly fixing one of your biggest problems right which is at this point having power and adding offensive upside to your middle infield well also not sacrificing you know a ton really i mean defensively now again you can see here his outs above average just be very clear i just triple check it was seven but a defensive run save or negative six so depending which metric you use either a great defender or horrible defender i'll leave that up to you but either way you put him at short you have Andres Jimenez at second that's a very very good infield you pair that with his i mean you look at the numbers on the left there an .880 .860 OPS last year incredible the year before struggled a little bit but he is a freak of nature I mean he has some of the he has the best bat speed in baseball he has some of the best advanced analytics in baseball in general and it's a rumor you have to kind of keep up with because keep in mind back in i think it was January he was offered a record-setting extension for obviously the Reds and he declined it so I don't know at this point there's a lot of rumblings about whether he wants to actually be a part of um you know the reds going forward then there were some updates about the boston thing that i mentioned also the dodgers have been named now toronto there's been a bunch of proposals over the past you know week or two about hey the jays could be interested we've heard from ben nichols and Smith and Shad have been in the past as well like the Jays aren't afraid to make big trades and in the off season now where the free agency pool is pretty weak it's not great trades might be the avenue to go if you want a superstar if you get Elly De La Cruz you're one of the few teams one of the only teams that can offer him a massive massive extension so you get that you offer him the massive extension you have him locked up you pair him with Vladdy kind of similar age he's actually younger than Vladdy and man would it be an insane insane um like middle infield him and Andres Jimenez and it works well because Jimenez is obviously an elite defender and I don't know I think it just it makes a lot of sense the problem is right you a couple things you obviously be adding an impact power bat beside Vladdy it would add some protection you'd add just more more power more they missed the threat last year right you didn't have Addison Barger being that threat behind Vladdy you didn't have hopefully Anthony Santander being behind it he also is insanely fast right he's gonna strike out a lot but have a look here i didn't even get to kind of show you guys this he's like 79th 80th percentile in speed and he steals a ton of bases he stole i think it was i think it says 67 he stole 30 bases last year 37 the year before i think it says 67 bases the year prior which is insane and he's not done he wants improvement he made some comments recently we need to get it together for next year talking about how you know is he happy in um in Cincinnati that is a big question especially with again the record contract offer being declined that would have made him the highest paid red ever now the question becomes what his control is what's his contract right now he's obviously um he's under contract so he's not a free agent for a while but the Jays could lock him up that's kind of he's going to want a ton of money anyway the Jays could lock him up beyond all of this and the problem is Cincinnati does have kind of leverage here right like at the end of the day they're only going to trade him for a ton he uh i mean a ton of money at the end of the day it's going to cost the a lot also i just want to clarify this this is messed up he's a free agent after 2029 two more years after 2029 he is a free agent which means the Jays kind of you have him for a couple more years but you would have to pay up there so where would you guys stand on it right you get Ellie for a couple years you can see how things go you end up having to pay him a massive contract um but again his defense have some questions you look at the prospects here they would absolutely need to give up uh multiple of these guys you're probably going to keep JoJo Parker out of trade talks anyway but in any trade like this you're probably giving up Nolan Perry you're definitely giving up guys like Ricky Teederman and whoever the Jays i want to keep that'll be the question but for uh for the Reds they're going to ask for basically everybody right because when you are a team like the reds they're going to be a ton of teams pursuing him Now, again, with the contract situation, there are only a handful of teams that can actually extend and beyond that it's under control till 2029. That's two more seasons with the lockout pending. Who knows? This is the time to make a big splash, though, through the Toronto Blue Jays, I think. But again, it would suck the second you start to get your cupboard kind of refilled here, which is what they did with all these prospects to go out and kind of empty it again. So I am curious to see what you guys think about it. At the end of the day, the reason to do this would be you add a power bat you can build alongside Vladdy, but this will also come down to what they do in free agency. If they go out and they get a guy like Seiya Suzuki, who is a very, very good bat, is he as good as Elly De La Cruz? Maybe the numbers wise, they say yes, but like Elly has the best advanced analytics in baseball or one of them, right? So I think you'd be kind of playing long game there. And Seiya Suzuki is 32, Elly is like 24, so 10 year, 25 now. So seven year difference, 10 year difference really. So it's interesting, right? And I Keep in mind, though, I saw some rumblings out there about like Davis Schneider and Jose Brios. That's never happening. It would take multiple prospects in your top 10. And is that something the Jays are willing to do? You know what I get? I'd probably trade Nolan Perry, Ricky Tiedemann, like a couple of your top guys, maybe not two pitchers, right? Maybe Nolan Perry and Blaine Bullard or someone like that, right? To get it done. But it's going to require more than that. They're probably going to ask for a guy like Addison Barger back. And that makes the conversation very uncomfortable. But on face value, I'm fine with bringing him in. i think it makes a ton of sense and seeing him alongside Vladdy would be super exciting let me know down below what you guys think about it thank you guys for watching see you guys later