Before the 2025 trade deadline, the Cleveland Guardians decided to trade former Cy Young award winner Shane Bieber to the Blue Jays and acquired Khal Stephen from the Blue Jays. Sending an ace to another team isn’t easy. When I look at this trade, I’m just thinking about a question.
Over the last several seasons, did these 2 teams agree to many deals? To solve my doubts, I decided to check on the great baseball reference website.
To make things easier, let's only look at trades from 2021 to 2024.
In April 2022, the Blue Jays sent Anthony Castro to the Guardians and acquired Bradley Zimmer. In mid-August 2022, Zimmer was DFAed by the Blue Jays and the Phillies claimed him off waivers. Nonetheless, in the end of August, the Phillies designated him for assignment and the Blue Jays claimed him off waiver. In total, Zimmer played 100 games for the Blue Jays in 2022, hitting only .101/.200/.213 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. Meanwhile, Anthony Castro tossed 13.1 innings for the Guardians in 2022. But his ERA was over 7 and his WHIP was over 2. The Guardians designed him for assignment in September 2022.
In addition, last December, there was a 3-team trade. The Blue Jays acquired Andres Gimenez and Nick Sandlin. The 2025 season isn’t an easy one for Gimenez because of injuries. So far this season, he slashes .220/.303/.322 with 5 home runs and 23 RBI over 62 games. Nick Sandlin has pitched 16.1 innings for the Blue Jays, posting a 2.20 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. Sandlin is on the IL now. Meanwhile, the Guardians got 4 players in the trade. Nick Mitchell, Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy are now in the minors. Luis Ortiz made 16 starts for the Guardians in 2025, posting a 4.36 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP over 88.2 innings. Nevertheless, he’s on the restricted list due to some reasons.
In January, the Guardians sent Myles Straw, cash and other considerations to the Blue Jays for a player to be named later. Straw has played 99 games for the Blue Jays, batting .251/.296/.330 with 2 home runs and 22 RBI.
When we carefully look at the trades between the Guardians and the Blue Jays, the trade in 2022 didn’t work very well. Zimmer’s hitting performance wasn’t good for the Blue Jays and Castro didn’t pitch well for the Guardians. Additionally, the trade in 2024 didn’t work as expected. Injuries have limited 2 players’ contributions. Luis Ortiz hasn’t pitched since early July. And he might not return to the mound this season. Moreover, Myles Straw’s hitting performance hasn’t been outstanding. Well, there are some prospects in the trades, so we can’t really tell if those trades aren’t good deals. Nonetheless, for the Blue Jays, a key thing is about health. If Gimenez, Sandlin and Bieber all become healthy and can play in the rest of the 2025 season or even contribute to the team in the postseason, that could be a special story behind those trades. But first, let’s see when Bieber will return to the mound.
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