Are the Jays Too Good to Upgrade?

 Here I was thinking that the summer would be slow with not much to write about. Thank you Blue Jays for having the most exciting season in the last 10 years to fill up my free time and give me ideas to write about. So exciting that tickets for any game against the Kansas City Royals are going for $90 minimum. I guess people have caught on to this team. Anyway, the Jays just took 3/4 against the Detroit Tigers and moved to sole possession of the best record in the entire MLB. With that I've been thinking about the Jays team construction for a while now and with guys coming back and the deadline looming, I am concerned they may have some good problems on their hands:

Good Problems To Have

The Jays don't necessarily have big stars at every position, but this season with the emergence of a bunch of guys they don't have bad players at any position either. This poses a unique problem for the Jays coming into the deadline, and with players returning from injury. The first good problem is the trade deadline. If you asked me at the start of the season what the Jays need I would've said probably an upgrade at 3rd base and an outfielder, each preferably with a bat. All of the sudden though Ernie Clement has burst on the scene with the 10th best WAR amongst 3rd basemen in the MLB, and Addison Barger is right behind him at 11th. Both of these guys offer positional versatility and I'd say Barger is as good in right field as he is at third base. In the outfield, George Springer has had a resurgent season so far with an OPS+ of 145. Nathan Lukes has been above average in the field and with his bat, though they rarely use him against lefties. Joey Loperfido got called up and immediately hit everything with a .359 average still to this point. Myles Straw has been invaluable with his defense and speed on the basepaths and he's even found himself in positions to get some clutch hits lately. Mix that in with Davis Schneider who is heating up and Addison Barger who can play an admirable right field and the Jays outfield has actually been a super versatile strength of the team. 

This leads us to the problem, how do you upgrade on a team that's all playing super well. At this point if you're the Jays you might not even want to target a bat unless it's a superstar with team control. Everyone in the outfield is above average and provides something different, you can't really upgrade there in a meaningful way even if you tried. Third base is being roamed by a top 10 third baseman in the league, by definition there's only 9 guys that could be an upgrade and all of those are marginal at this point as well. Even the new weaknesses that have emerged like second base are primed to be filled by guys like Gimenez returning to the lineup. Sneakily, this Jays offense is impossible to upgrade upon. This is a good problem though, it allows the Jays to use their resources to go after bullpen arms. They're probably going to need at least 2 leverage relievers if they want to make any kind of noise in the playoffs, now they can go get that. But that's not all the Jays have to "worry" about. 

Looming soon are the returns of Daulton Varsho, Andres Gimenez and potentially Anthony Santander. In a normal season, getting 3 really good players back would be a huge shot in the arm, this season I am actually worried about the impact. Varsho should be back this week and with that comes a decision on who to send down. Everyone's guess is Joey Loperfido, but like I said he's come up and done nothing but hit, how do you send that guy down? Not only that, Varsho figures to play every day in centerfield, a place where he's admittedly awesome, but this now takes away playing time from Nathan Lukes and Myles Straw who each have provided something different to the team this year and have really contributed to winning. Andres Gimenez is likely next and he's a bit easier to fit back in. Although his bat isn't the best, the Jays are playing a lot of Leo Jimenez in his place this year and that's been the one guy who hasn't come in and immediately raked. Andres might have the best glove at second base in the league so I'll accept him coming back. Both of these guys should still make the team better upon their return, even though it will make me sad to see guys performing have to get sent down or play less. But there's a big elephant in the room. 

This offseason the Jays signed Anthony Santander to a 5 year $92.5m contract to be a big bat in the middle of the lineup. A notorious slow starter, Santander did just that, but the broadcast promised me that he'll go crazy in May and June and it'll all be worth it. Just as we got into May, Santander got hurt and hasn't seen the field yet, so we never saw him get hot. Now my perception of Anthony Santander is skewed, but do we really want him coming back this season? I hate to wish for a guy to stay injured but if the Santander we're getting back is the same as the one we saw earlier this year, he absolutely does not help this team. The only position he can reasonably play is left field, a place where I've just mentioned is loaded with above average outfielders. He's not a good defender in that position so you'd only want him for his bat, which if it takes a while to get going is fairly useless as well. Addison Barger coming in and unexpectedly hitting like a star slugger in the middle of the lineup has made Santander a little more expendable than we thought he'd be coming into the season. My biggest fear with the Jays is that Santander will come back, hit like crap while continuing to play poor defense and it'll ruin the chemistry they have 1-9 in this lineup. If you told me I'd be feeling this way back in April, I'd have called you a lunatic. 

That's that! The Jays are in such a good spot that I am advocating for them to keep their best players on the IL. What a time to be a fan! Lets go Blue Jays!