MLB Trade Deadline: 3 Blue Jays players likely to be traded by July 30

The Toronto Blue Jays are not making the postseason. Despite high hopes coming into the 2024 season, a combination of underperformance and bad luck has saddled MLB's sole Canadian team with a 39-49 record.

Now last in the AL East, GM Ross Atkins appears to have entered a rebuild. The majority of the team's fielders were members of the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons less than a year ago, and the team's few stars appear set for the chopping block. Today, we will be examining three names who have a solid chance of being moved before the July 30 trade deadline.

Three Toronto Blue Jays Players Likely to be Traded

3. Daulton Varsho

The 2022 trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks that sent Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno to the desert in exchange for Daulton Varsho was a contentious one. Now, nearly two years later, it appears as though the Snakes certainly won that deal.

Although his defensive play is solid, Varsho has hit just .198/.283/.399 this season with 11 home runs and 36 RBIs. while the pair of Gurriel and Moreno have surpassed that. A speedy, heads-up player who knows how to drag bunt, trading Varsho, who is an imminent free agent, for a bullpen arm or prospects is likely the move to be made.

2. Yusei Kikuchi

Thirty-three-year-old Japanese leftie Yusei Kikuchi is another player whose hype has never been followed up with tangible results. Despite dropping $36 million on the starter since 2022, Kikuchi sports a 4.30 ERA and a 21-21 record since coming to the Jays from the Seattle Mariners.

"Yusei Kikuchi knows his time with the Jays could be coming to a close with the trade deadline less than a month away." - The Score

Now 1-3 with a 6.23 over his past five starts, trading Kikuchi is beginning to look like a real possibility. Already, the Yankees have been among the teams named in a possible sweepstakes for an arm that will likely never see postseason baseball in Toronto.

1. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

After Vladimir Guerrero slammed an MLB-best 48 home runs in 2021 to finish as the runner-up in AL MVP voting, many fans believed that the first baseman would be a Jay for life. Although Vladdy has claimed "I want to stay (in Toronto) my entire life", the situation on the ground makes that look increasingly unlikely.

"Are the #Yankees the favoured trade destination for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.? #ToTheCore" - Sports Interaction

For one, the Jays have been hesitant to offer Guerrero a long-term deal, something that the 25-year-old has criticized. Moreover, the slugger looks increasingly out of place on a team where offense is not conceived easily. Should the big man be dealt to a team like the Philadelphia Phillies or New York Yankees, the Jays could reap some serious talent in the form of young prospects, or even draft selections.