Blue Jays’ goodbyes to teammates at deadline a reminder of season gone wrong

BALTIMORE — When Yusei Kikuchi signed with the Toronto Blue Jays ahead of the 2022 season, he came to win a World Series title.

When Justin Turner signed with the club ahead of this season, one of his goals, besides winning a title, was to help the young players take the next step, including advancing beyond the first round of the postseason.

Instead, on the eve of MLB’s trade deadline both Kikuchi and Turner departed the Blue Jays after being dealt in separate trades in another stark and sad reminder of a season gone wrong.

Of course, it isn’t a surprise Turner and Kikuchi were traded. Their departures had been forecast for weeks as the Blue Jays settled into the basement of the American League East and were subsequently relegated to seller status for the first time since 2019.

A great teammate, tremendously hard worker, and friend to all. Thank you for everything, Yusei 💙❤️

とても頼りになるリーダーであり、最高のチ-ムメイト、そしてみんなの友達。　雄星、今まで本当にありがとう御座いました！ pic.twitter.com/u68ipbrv87

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 30, 2024

The only question was where they would go, which we now know.

Turner was dealt to the Seattle Mariners — joining reliever Yimi García — for 24-year-old outfielder RJ Schreck, and Kikuchi heads to the Houston Astros for three prospects, right-handed pitcher Jake Bloss, outfielder Joey Loperfido and infielder Will Wagner, who all ranked among The Athletic’s Keith Law’s top 20 Astros prospects before the season.

Kikuchi said he was feeling mixed emotions in the aftermath of being traded. There was relief in finally knowing where he was headed after weeks of uncertainty. He was excited to join a contender in the Astros, battling for the AL West title. But he was also sad to leave Toronto, a place his family, including his wife and his 5-year-old son, Leo, have embraced.

“(My son’s) been saying, he doesn’t want to move away from Canada,” Kikuchi said through his interpreter Yusuke Oshima.

Kikuchi was also feeling grateful for his time in Toronto, a 2 1/2-year span when he transformed from a shaky pitcher who lost his job in the rotation to a confident starter who shares the lead in the majors with 22 starts this year. The left-hander departs Toronto with a 4.48 ERA in 70 starts.

“(Pitching coach) Pete (Walker) definitely played a big part. Even through my struggles, he helped me, he was always there by my side,” Kikuchi said. “The other pitching coaches as well, they’re really helpful. And not just them, but the other starting pitchers, as well.”

On paper, the return for two months of Kikuchi appears strong. Bloss is an MLB-ready arm who ranked 12th on Law’s list and made his major-league debut this season. Loperfido ranked sixth and Wagner ranked seventh in Law’s ranking.

Bloss addresses a need for Toronto, which had been interested in starting pitching depth, especially at the upper minor-league levels. Loperfido is a versatile outfielder who’s played 38 games for the Astros this season, hitting .236/.299/.358. Wagner, son of former MLB closer Billy Wagner, is an infielder hitting .307/424/.429 this season in 70 games in Triple A.

“Kuch, it’s tough to say goodbye to him, because we’ve known him for three years, and he’s just a great dude, but really excited about what we got back for him,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

For now, the Blue Jays are trying to make the best of their bad situation. They’ve dealt five players so far and received 11 in return, and more could be on the way if they trade relievers Trevor Richards or Chad Green or centre fielder Kevin Kiermaier by Tuesday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline. Given the return fetched for Kikuchi, maybe the Blue Jays should consider moving starter Chris Bassitt as well, though they seem firmly intent on keeping Bassitt, signed through 2025, in the hope they author a turnaround and compete again next season.

But, with due respect to all the players dealt to Toronto, in the midst of what was meant to be the height of the Blue Jays’ contention years — years that have previously included zero playoff wins, by the way — celebrating returns for deadline deals feels like ordering a filet mignon and having to settle for a hot dog. It’s still food and it might very well be delicious, but it’s not what you ordered.

The Blue Jays memorably missed out on Shohei Ohtani in the offseason and then entered this season hoping their plan on doubling down on their existing core and a new offensive strategy would be enough to contend for a division title. But it didn’t work out, as the offence slumped to start the season.

The bullpen also broke down because of injuries and surprising underperformance and the starting pitching wasn’t as reliable as it was a year ago, when it largely carried the Blue Jays to their 89-win season.

Mix in untimely injuries, a suspension of a top-hitting prospect, a season-long slump and a pair of calf injuries for Bo Bichette, and you get a season that completely fell off the rails well before the All-Star break.

“There was just some streakiness and slumps, myself included. I had probably one of the worst months of my career in May after having a great April,” Turner said when asked why this Blue Jays season didn’t go well. “I don’t know, I just didn’t really feel like it all came together. Not too many games where we were hitting on all three facets of the game — pitching, defence and offence. We got a good outing from our starter, we didn’t hit. We put up a bunch of runs, we give up some runs.

“For whatever reason, it didn’t go the way we wanted, and that’s disappointing to me because that’s not what I came here for. I came here to help us win and make a postseason run, and feels like I let an entire country down, really.”

Kikuchi pointed to injuries as a reason the Blue Jays couldn’t get it together but added that “the potential is there.”

“Next year moving forward, I think the team is in good hands still,” he said.

Though Turner fell on the sword and Kikuchi cited injuries, last week Bassitt said candidly the fault for a season gone wrong fell with every single person within the organization.

“I don’t think there’s one person with clean hands right now — I really don’t,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve done anything well this year.”

Bassitt did go on to excuse Daulton Varsho’s defence from scorn. It’s probably fair to add Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s bat to that list now, too. The first baseman is on an extended heater, with a 1.119 OPS in July. Guerrero had seven hits, including two home runs and three doubles in Monday’s doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles.

The trade deadline is in less than 24 hours and even more Blue Jays players could be departing the clubhouse before Tuesday’s game even begins. The players all understand the business, but it’s safe to say, this isn’t the type of deadline they expected.

“It’ll sting for probably 24 hours or so when you lose guys that are veterans and that have performed really well, and you got to reel guys back in and say, OK, this is what we got, here’s what we’re trying to do. And you got to go out and do it every day,” Schneider said.

(Photo of Yariel Rodríguez: Mitchell Layton / Getty Images)