The Toronto Blue Jays enter play on Thursday at 29-33 and tied for third place in the American League East, 8.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays. Furthermore, Toronto is just 1.5 games back of the third and final wild card spot.

After getting to the World Series in 2025, and after signing Dylan Cease, Tyler Rogers and Kazuma Okamoto this offseason, the Blue Jays have big goals in 2026 - even despite the frustrations of the first half of the season.

As a result of those big expectations, the Jays are probably looking to swing big on the trade market as the early August trade deadline approaches. We've discussed the notion of the Blue Jays acquiring two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal already, but ESPN's Jeff Passan lists another former Cy Young winner as a possibility: Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins.

A nine-year veteran of the St. Louis Cardinals and Marlins, Alcantara is now 30 years old going on 31. He's just a career 56-71 pitcher, but he won the Cy Young in 2022, going 14-9 with a 2.28 ERA.

Since that Cy Young season, things have been downhill for the hard-throwing right-hander. He went 7-12 with a 4.14 ERA in 2023, then missed 2024 with Tommy John surgery. He returned in 2025, going 11-12 with a 5.36 ERA and this year, he's 4-4 with a 4.59. He has just 57 strikeouts in 82.1 innings, but he still represents a premium arm talent.

He is under contract this season at $17.3 million, though the Blue Jays would only pay a prorated portion of that if they acquired him. He has a club option at a very affordable $21 million in 2027.

Well: Injuries have taken a massive toll on the Blue Jays rotation, so you can never have enough pitching. Bowden Francis, Jose Berrios and Cody Ponce are out for the season, and Max Scherzer, Shane Bieber and Cease are on the injured list right now.

Even if the Jays get to a spot where they have a full rotation healthy, acquiring Alcantara would provide high-end depth.

Furthermore, the club option could be big. Kevin Gausman is a free agent at the end of the season, as are Bieber and Patrick Corbin, so locking in Alcantara could help get a start on the offseason work.

And finally, the primary motivation for the Marlins, historically, has been to slash payroll. If the Blue Jays agree to take on all the money, could they get away with not giving up premium prospect capital?

What if the Marlins change their tune? If this deal becomes about more than money, than do the Jays really want to trade premium prospects for a struggling pitcher on an expiring deal?

And how about the labor situation? The primary value for Alcantara might be that he's got that club option for 2027, but how much of 2027 will actually get played?

It remains to be seen.

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