Not everyone is happy about Thursday’s Major League Baseball non-wavier trade deadline.
Contending teams throughout the league made huge moves to improve, but one team stood pat and did nothing: the Toronto Blue Jays.
Toronto, which sits 1 1/2 games back of the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East, did not make a move before the 4 p.m. deadline. Outfielder Jose Bautista was not exactly pleased with Toronto’s inactivity.
“Everybody does that at the deadline, and figures out a way to improve the roster,” Bautista said, via The National Post. “We just somehow didn’t.”
The Blue Jays were the only AL East team that did not make a trade on Thursday. Team officials told players during spring training that if the team was in contention in July, moves would be made to upgrade the club in the middle of the pennant race.
The club clearly did not follow through on that promise.
“You don’t make a move just to make a move, if it’s not going to help your team at all, but at the same time, doing something — even if it’s a small improvement — I think it gives the (clubhouse) some excitement that hey, they’ve got our backs, they’re trying hard, they’re doing everything possible to make this club better,” closer Casey Janssen said after the deadline passed.
With the American League tightly packed at the top, making the postseason will be no easy task. The Blue Jays should know that better than any team — they haven’t reached the postseason since 1993.
“We all want to win badly, and we’re in a position where we’re in striking distance with not a lot of games left,” Bautista said.
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