As Deadline nears, Blue Jays 'can just never have enough' starting pitching

TORONTO -- Right around now, as June tumbles into July, you can start to feel the Trade Deadline in the air.

Everything becomes attached to it. The Deadline hangs on the horizon as a sense of hope for every problem your team might have. Every prospect's success story becomes a shiny, gold trade chip. By Aug. 3, all of these teams stuck in the crowded middle will declare just how serious they are about the 2026 World Series, and even after their slow start, the Blue Jays are clear buyers.

Back to .500 and finally getting healthy, the Blue Jays can look forward now. Speaking Tuesday afternoon, prior to Toronto's game against the Astros, general manager Ross Atkins addressed the Deadline that’s quickly growing closer and more realistic.

“It’s probably starting pitching, but it’s not as easy as just deciding to do that,” Atkins said, “because we have five starters that we’re confident in. You can just never have enough. We’ve talked about that a lot over the years and over this year, specifically, as we started heavy in that category. We’re just always looking to support that. In an ideal world, it would be optionable starting pitching, one of the hardest things to acquire in baseball.”

• 3 questions the Blue Jays must answer leading up to the Deadline

Controllable starting pitching is so difficult to acquire because bad teams can still benefit from it in the long term. The 32-year-old starter in the final year of his contract? That pitcher is easy to trade because they’re not part of the future, but the 25-year-old with three option years left? Sellers will really need to be convinced to move a player like that. It isn’t easy, and in most cases, you pay a premium.

This also points us to the important line drawn between starters and “bulk guys.” It’s a thin line, blurry at times, but it’s crucial. The Blue Jays have a half-dozen young arms who can bounce up and down from Triple-A, giving them three or four innings at a time. Just look at Spencer Miles, Lazaro Estrada, Chad Dallas, Simeon Woods Richardson, Adam Macko, CJ Van Eyk and others. There’s no shortage there.

When it comes to true “starters” though, the Blue Jays are thin. José Berríos and Cody Ponce are done for the season. Frankly, the loss of Bowden Francis to Tommy John surgery hasn’t gotten enough attention, either. Francis didn’t project to be part of the big league rotation to open the season, but he’s exactly the type of “optionable starting pitching depth” Atkins is talking about here.

Beyond Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage and Shane Bieber, Toronto has a question mark in its No. 5 spot. Patrick Corbin has struggled, Max Scherzer is back on the IL after struggles of his own and there’s no obvious “next man up” here. These types of pitchers are so valuable because they’re a scarce commodity.

“It’s so hard to acquire guys who you can have in Triple-A who are capable of coming up here and having five- to seven-inning outings,” Atkins said.

Sure, an old-fashioned rental could work out just fine, giving the Blue Jays 10 starts down the stretch and helping with the postseason push, but a starter with club control beyond 2026 makes a lot of sense for this organization, especially when you consider the Blue Jays’ ability to take on payroll.

Gausman, Bieber and Scherzer are free agents next year, and Berríos won’t be ready yet. It’s never too early to get to work on the ‘27 rotation.

For now, everyone’s just stuck in the waiting game. The Blue Jays would love to swing a deal tomorrow and get 16 starts out of their acquisition instead of 10, but that’s not how this market works.

“There are so many teams that are in it that maybe didn’t expect to be,” Atkins said. “Some of those maybe didn’t expect to be at this point, so it’s a little bit early to say exactly what that’s going to look like. If it holds, it’s going to be very much a seller’s market.”

The Blue Jays will be active elsewhere, of course, but this is their closest thing to a “need.” Their lineup’s pedestrian output can be solved in-house, especially if Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wakes from his slumber, so there’s more room for patience there given that the answers may already be in the room.

Somewhere, though, there’s a pitcher wearing another uniform who will soon be wearing blue. The Blue Jays have six weeks to figure out who that is, and until then, everything they do will live in the shadow of the Deadline.