The Toronto Blue Jays already boast baseball’s most powerful lineup, and according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports, it might be getting more powerful pretty soon with an acquisition of Jay Bruce.
Jay Bruce is coming up in trade talks still. Blue Jays could be a possibility.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 22, 2016
Heyman later added that the proposed deal is a three-way move that would send Michael Saunders to the Angels, which would certainly mean that Bruce would be Toronto’s primary left fielder.
Without knowing the full trade, it’s hard to be too analytical, but it’s awfully challenging to see the logic for the Blue Jays here.
Toronto already has a potent lineup. It would not be remotely surprising if any of the following (or all of them) topped 40 homers: Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki, and Josh Donaldson. There is no lineup in a league that has that kind of punch.
Jay Bruce has never hit 40, but he’s certainly a threat to top 30 bombs and even 40 wouldn’t be overly surprising, but how much will another basher really help their cause?
What the Blue Jays lack in a big way is reliable pitching. Maybe Marcus Stroman can bounce back from an injury that cost him nearly all of 2015 and be a true ace. But even if he does, it’s hard to see Stroman, coupled with any four of Marco Estrada, R.A. Dickey, J.A. Happ, Aaron Sanchez, Jesse Chavez, Drew Hutchinson, and Roberto Hernandez being a championship-caliber pitching staff.
The same goes for the bullpen. Drew Storen has been a good reliever and there’s no reason to think he won’t be a good closer, but what about the middle relievers and set-up men before him? That’s not a starting rotation that’s going to be pitching deep into many games, so the relievers will be key in winning games.
Scoring a ton of runs is great, but it’s only half of the battle. If the Blue Jays are not only going to get back to the playoffs, but be serious championship contenders there, run prevention will be necessary. Teams with good pitching can generally negate dominant offenses enough in a seven-game series to win four games.
Even if they trade for Bruce and he exceeds expectations, it’s at best debatable that the Blue Jays will actually be a better team because of it