Bird Watch: Potential Needs For The Jays

We'll it's that time of year again in the baseball season, the time when teams list themselves as buyers or sellers as. They find themselves potentially being contenders or realzing they aren't. So let's take a quick look at what these teams need and what they could realistically get given their circumstances.

Blue Jays: The Jays are in the worst position of the bunch, now I don't mean that in the sense that they have the most holes he'll they probably have the lease, however their main need is a front of the rotation pitcher and that's likely to cost them pitching prospects and they spent most of them on last off seasons trades. Before I get more into it I'll just pint that this is another of the reasons why the Jays needed to sign Tanaka because money can easily be found and put into the team, especially given that Rogers is one of the richest owners in the MLB, and prospects can't be as readily replenished. Ok so the Jays need just what they needed during the offseason, a second baseman and a front of the rotation starting pitcher. The potential players that they could obtain would be Chase Utley, if the Phillies get their heads out of their asses or maybe Mark Ellis, though that is dependent on what the Cardinals decide to do with Kolten Wong. For starting pitching they have a fair number of choices, David Price, Jeff Samardjiza, though the price for these two May be too high and they have gone in the record saying they are after rental players (only on contract for the remaining year). As well Jason Hammel, Cliff Lee, James Shields, Cole Hamels and maybe some of the Reds/Pirates pitchers if they end up being sellers (Cueto, Liriano, and maybe Morton). Now if the situations with those second basemen work out in favour of the Jays they have equal ability to get either of those players since neither of them are really high class players and the Jays do have a plethora of position player prospects available. On the other hand there are far more complexities with the potential trade bait pitchers. First off we have the big guys Price, Samardjiza, Lee and Hamels, now All of these guys are going to require a high price and like I said before the Jays have been more looking at rest of the season rental players making a trade for Price or Samardjiza unlikely since they would likely cost at the very least 1 of their Stoman or Sanchez. On the other hand both Hamels and Lee are still signed to more years but for a VERY high salary so if the Jays offer to cover a great deal of it they may be able to get off without having to ditch a lot of their high end prospects so again if everything falls in place for the Jays it's possible that they trade for  Lee or Hamels but a bit unlikely that they sign Price or Samardjiza. Then there's the next level of pitchers being Cueto,  Liriano, Shields and Morton, in this case these pitchers will only be made available if their respective teams falls out of contention, and soon. And if they do I don't tank the Jays SHOULD NOT trade for  Liriano or Morton as they are lacklustre pitchers who have just been succeeding due to their park and their pitching coach. The possibility of them trading for Cueto is possible but considering it's not a rental it's likely they would need to again give up multiple high end prospects, which puts it as just as unlikely as Price, on the other hand if the Royals falls out of contention Shields is a very real possibility as he IS a rest of season rental player and given his past success in the AL East has the ability to pitch well and since his price wouldn't be as high as Price he would be a very likely trade to the Jays, again though if things fall right for Toronto. All in all the Jays have a plethora of options potentially available to them but when it comes down to the wire they are going to have to suck it up and make a trade for a ACTUAL fron of the rotation starter at the least and not go half assed and get a less than stellar pitcher if they hope to get anywhere in the playoffs.