The 2026 season has been somewhat of a disaster so far for the Toronto Blue Jays. More than halfway through the campaign, they sit seven games below .500 at 43-49, with one of the worst offenses in baseball thanks to several of their best players struggling.
Fortunately, however, much of the American League has been just as bad, so the Blue Jays remain only 3.5 games back of the final wild-card spot despite how dire things have been.
Because of that, and the fact that we know Toronto is capable of so much more than they’ve shown, former MLB executive turned insider Jim Bowden thinks GM Ross Atkins should still go for it as a buyer ahead of the August 3 trade deadline.
“One thing that I would keep in mind with the Blue Jays is they were just in the World Series last year. And then the other thing that I keep in mind is the games-behind column in terms of the wild card. Am I in striking distance? And then my next question is if I were to make the playoffs, can I win that wild-card two out of three and can I run the table in October? Is there a pathway to do that?
And in this particular year where you really don’t have any dominant teams, I’m looking at the Blue Jays going, if they can get hot, if they get in as a wild-card team, they have the experience from last year of winning these close series and they have guys on this team that have been there, done that. So I would be sitting in that seat and going for it. Period, that’s where I stand,”
The Blue Jays are not only 3.5 games back of Texas for the final wild-card spot but also four games back of Cleveland for the second wild-card spot in the AL.
It does make sense to give this team as much runway as possible to right the ship, given the talent, expectations, and their status as a top-five payroll in all of baseball.
That being said, as Bowden mentioned, if Toronto doesn’t start that turnaround sooner rather than later, then they’ll give Atkins and company no choice but to stay conservative and perhaps even sell at the deadline.
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