TORONTO – Two weeks removed from one of the more clever and unique trade deadlines the Toronto Blue Jays have pulled off, it’s a good time to revisit what they accomplished and the motivations behind their approach. 

The short-term results certainly reflect well, as they’ve altered the course of their season in dramatic fashion, their odds of winning a wild-card spot surging from 4.4 per cent on Aug. 3 to 17.7 per cent Monday, second only to the Baltimore Orioles, at 23.2 per cent, among the seven clubs within 2.5 games of the American League’s final playoff spot.

But it’s in helping the now while also addressing some substantial medium-to-longer-term issues that makes the way they flipped Kevin Gausman, Daulton Varsho, Jeff Hoffman, Adam Macko and top-100 prospect Arjun Nimmala an intriguing case study.

Throughout the season, as the Blue Jays have worked to correct the big-league club, there’s been concurrent concern about gaps in the farm system that could make replacing coming roster needs more challenging. 

The July 10 trade of reliever Tommy Nance to the Minnesota Twins for high-A catcher/third baseman Ryan Sprock – taking a replaceable asset and turning it into a future piece without hurting the present on-field product – was a reflection of both that worry and how the organization aimed to address the issue.

Still, knowing they had both immediate and next-season needs on the mound and at the plate, the Blue Jays understood that they weren’t going to be able to solve for all their needs in one trade deadline, or one off-season. 

So, as they explored the buy and sell markets ahead of the Aug. 3 cutoff, they identified the opportunity to get José Soriano as a way to get the jump on their off-season work, while backfilling for Gausman’s departure in the present. Gausman returned a near-term piece in centre-fielder Brett Bateman, along with a future piece in infielder Ty Southisene, to help cover for the departure of Varsho, also on an expiring contract, and he returned another starter in Spencer Arrighetti, bolstering the rotation outside of free agency. 

In turn, that should help the Blue Jays focus time and resources on the offence during the winter, a fix that was always going to be more complicated. Bateman has certainly........

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