KANSAS CITY -- The Blue Jays are letting the kids play.

After an incredibly busy time leading right up to the July 31 Trade Deadline, Toronto bolstered its young core and said goodbye to several veteran players along the way.

Between Sunday and Wednesday afternoon, the Blue Jays added pitching prospects Anthony Kay, Simeon Woods-Richardson, Thomas Hatch and Kyle Johnston, a controllable outfield asset in Derek Fisher, and two players to be named later. Toronto departed with homegrown starters Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez, relievers Daniel Hudson, David Phelps and Joe Biagini, utility infielder Eric Sogard and outfield prospect Cal Stevenson.

It seems apparent that the Blue Jays’ brass is officially handing over the keys to the young clubhouse, with plans to continue to build around the youth movement.

The work will continue
“We’re not done,” general manager Ross Atkins said. “We have an incredible young core to build around. We have some exciting young pitchers. The list is now getting well over 20, where we’re talking about guys who check all the boxes to be starting pitchers. Some of that list is further away but a lot of it is near.”

“We’re going to continue to look for opportunities to add starting pitching alternatives in the near term as well. If we have to move position players to do that, we may have to look at doing that.”

All of the arms the Blue Jays acquired were among the top 30 prospects of the organizations they departed. Kay is the closest to the Majors. Toronto’s No. 5 prospect made his debut with Triple-A Buffalo on Wednesday, allowing seven runs (three earned) on nine hits over 4 2/3 innings with three walks and three strikeouts

“[This] offseason, we will be extremely driven to acquire any potential pitching that we can,” Atkins said. “We feel great about the depth that we have acquired. We have turned six or seven years of Major League control -- if you add Cal Stevenson into that, 14 years of control -- into 42 years of control. The bulk of the return was in pitching. Derek Fisher is a position player. That depth that we’ve added to the core that we do have is very exciting to us.”

The future starts now
With the exciting debuts of three legacy players this season in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and most recently Bo Bichette, the future seems closer than ever in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse. Despite feeling the hit of the losses of several veteran players, the freshest faces couldn’t be more invigorated by what the changes mean as they move forward.

“You can feel the confidence the club has in the younger guys,” 24-year-old catcher Danny Jansen said. “You can definitely see that the opportunities are here and they’re readily available. It’s a great time to be a Blue Jay, because the opportunities that we have are amazing.”

Reese McGuire, Toronto’s No. 26 prospect, shared the sentiment of his fellow backstop, and couldn’t be more thrilled to have joined the Major League roster amid the excitement.

“It’s amazing because we know every single one of us had the dream to play in the big leagues,” McGuire said. “So for us to get the opportunity and do well is awesome, but then when you watch other people who have that success, it’s much cooler because you know how hard they work, you know how much they love the game and you know their families in the stands. … We all know what those shoes feel like.”

A look ahead
The man most familiar with some of the franchise’s most talented young players is Major League coach John Schneider, who spent the last 11 seasons as a coach and then manager in the Minors with the Blue Jays, winning championships with the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats in 2018 and the Class A Advanced Dunedin Blue Jays in ’17.

Schneider has had a firsthand look at what the homegrown talent has to offer and believes the Blue Jays have the players they need to build around as the club sets its sights on the future.

“The fact that they’ve played together in the Minors and have had success is exciting,” Schneider said. “You look at the offensive potential and you look at the potential that they have to be able to play together for a long time at this level, I think it’s pretty cool.”

The transformation in Toronto’s clubhouse has been significant over the past few days, and after a three-game sweep of the Royals in Kansas City before heading to Baltimore, the Blue Jays are looking forward to the change.

“The most exciting thing is the chemistry of a lot of guys who have played together coming up through the system,” Jansen said. “And seeing Bo’s dreams come true when he arrived here and watching him ball out.

“The future is now,” McGuire added. It’s exciting, guys are getting opportunities and they’re shining. A lot of these guys are just putting their talent on display up here and it’s a quick showing of what’s to come, for sure.”