This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
TORONTO -- From the rubble of the 2024 season, something had to be salvaged. No season can be wasted entirely, so while the Blue Jays viewed their 74-88 season as a “blip” instead of a step back, they reloaded.
The Blue Jays traded: Yimi García, Nate Pearson, Danny Jansen, Justin Turner, Yusei Kikuchi, Trevor Richards, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Kevin Kiermaier.
In return, they targeted mature prospects, wanting to quickly retool on the fly instead of crossing their fingers with lottery tickets that might cash five years down the road. That list included Yohendrick Piñango (current No. 9 prospect, per MLB Pipeline), Charles McAdoo (No. 25) and RJ Schreck (No. 8), but their biggest deal of the Deadline was the one that sent Kikuchi to the Astros for three young players.
A couple of deals later and this is one of the most impressive trade trees the front office has pulled off, turning Kikuchi into three important pieces, two of whom are already helping Toronto win games in 2026 and another who could soon join the party.
THE INITIAL TRADE (July 29. 2024)
Houston gets: LHP Yusei Kikuchi
Toronto gets: RHP Jake Bloss, OF Joey Loperfido, INF Will Wagner
Bloss was the headliner of this deal at the time, then ranked as Houston’s No. 2 prospect before he joined Toronto’s system at No. 3 (he's now No. 7). Unfortunately, Tommy John surgery has delayed Bloss’ return to the big leagues, but the early signs in his rehab starts lately have been extremely encouraging.
Over 4 1/3 innings of shutout ball for Single-A Dunedin last week in his fifth rehab start of this process, Bloss sat 96.3 mph with his fastball and was touching 97. That’s noticeably harder than the 24-year-old was throwing prior to surgery, and if he can maintain that as he inches closer to the big leagues, then we could be talking about a completely different pitcher.
Tommy John rehabs make for complicated decisions surrounding workloads, but Bloss could quickly emerge as a bulk option for the Blue Jays, becoming an option for the role that Spencer Miles, Simeon Woods Richardson and Adam Macko have occupied recently. Bloss is a savvy, intelligent pitcher who should adapt to roles well, and given that he doesn’t turn 25 until later this month, there’s still all the time in the world for this to become “the Jake Bloss trade.”
SECOND TRADE (July 31, 2025)
San Diego gets: INF Will Wagner
Toronto gets: C Brandon Valenzuela
This felt like a smart move to shuffle depth at the time, but it’s already looking like much, much more than that.
The early read on this deal was that Valenzuela could eventually develop into a glove-first backup behind Alejandro Kirk down the road. Wagner had bounced up and down between the Blue Jays and Triple-A Buffalo that season and wasn’t exactly running away with a job, so this trade didn’t feel like a risk, either. Frankly, it didn’t earn much discussion at the time -- a minor deal buried beneath a wave of trade involving bigger names.
Pound for pound, it already looks like one of the best pieces of business we’ve seen from this front office because of how scarce Major League catching is. If Valenzuela can stick as Kirk’s backup and form a solid tandem for the next five years, this is a grand slam.
THIRD TRADE (February 13, 2026)
Houston gets: OF Joey Loperfido
Toronto gets: OF Jesús Sánchez
If you want to assign roles, the Blue Jays were the “buyer” here, taking on Sánchez’s salary ($6.8M) while trading away more years of control in Loperfido, who flashed at times in Toronto but had never been given a full runway in a starting role.
Again, it’s working. Sánchez came into Wednesday batting .296 with seven home runs and an .805 OPS, crushing right-handed pitching. It took some time for Sánchez to settle in -- we didn’t see those big hacks early on -- but the project is paying off and he’s providing some crucial power to a lineup that’s still waiting on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to wake up.
Sánchez has one year of arbitration remaining, too, so he should be part of this outfield in 2027 before hitting free agency following next season. If the Blue Jays can build complementary pieces around Sánchez to keep him as the majority stakeholder in a platoon, he’ll continue to be an important bat in this lineup.
The final trade, then, at the bottom of the tree?
Toronto trades: Yusei Kikuchi
Toronto gets: Jake Bloss, Brandon Valenzuela, Jesús Sánchez