{"id":60089,"date":"2023-08-01T19:40:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T23:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=60089"},"modified":"2023-08-01T19:40:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T23:40:10","slug":"jays-trade-cardinals-dejong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/08\/01\/jays-trade-cardinals-dejong\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Acquire Shortstop Paul DeJong from Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/17\/blue-jays-trade-deadline-options\/\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> filled a need in the infield, acquiring Paul DeJong in a trade with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/06\/20\/willson-contreras-slump\/\" target=\"_self\">St. Louis Cardinals<\/a>. Currently, the Blue Jays hold a 2 1\/2 game lead for the final American League wild card. They&#8217;ve already been active at the deadline, making<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2023\/07\/30\/hicks-trade-jays-cardinals\/\" target=\"_self\"> a separate deal<\/a> with the Cardinals for reliever Jordan Hicks.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">OFFICIAL: We\u2019ve acquired INF Paul DeJong and cash considerations from the Cardinals in exchange for Minor League RHP Matt Svanson.<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to our <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BlueJays?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BlueJays<\/a> family! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fnM4uEcQRX\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fnM4uEcQRX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueJays\/status\/1686435590055612429?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 1, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Toronto entered the season expecting to compete for an AL East title but has been outraced by the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. With Bo Bichette&#8217;s leg injury recently, the team needs depth in the middle infield. For the Cardinals, this is another piece in their rebuild following a disappointing season. At 47-60, St. Louis decided to sell off their assets to rebuild their pitching infrastructure.<\/p>\n<h3>Blue Jays Add Infield Depth<\/h3>\n<p>Following their shortstop&#8217;s injury, the Blue Jays needed a middle infielder to supplement their roster. Paul DeJong is their answer for now. He&#8217;s performed almost exactly as his career numbers suggest, hitting .233 this season with 13 home runs. He&#8217;s an adequate defender at shortstop but has not been able to take hold of the starting role in his time in St. Louis. As a placeholder shortstop, he projects to be a utility piece for the Jays once Bichette recovers. For the Jays, the deal was to strengthen the team&#8217;s floor, but this trade does not extend Toronto&#8217;s ceiling.<\/p>\n<h3>Cardinals Acquire Pitching Prospect<\/h3>\n<p>In exchange for DeJong, the Cardinals received Double-A reliever Matt Svanson. Svanson is 4-1 this season with a 1.11 ERA and six saves. He brings a high strikeout rate without a prohibitive walk rate and has been consistently effective in his minor league career. He was not ranked in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/bluejays\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blue Jays&#8217; top 30 prospects<\/a>. For the Cardinals, this addresses their goal of gaining pitching prospects in exchange for their major league pieces at the deadline. Despite a solid offensive lineup, their pitching staff is the primary reason for their record this season. In short, another Blue Jays trade was a move that could be made, and gaining a potential bullpen piece for the future was worth the effort.<\/p>\n<h3>Impact on the MLB Postseason<\/h3>\n<p>The latest Cardinals-Blue Jays trade will likely have minimal impact on the postseason picture. DeJong is not likely to change the course of Toronto&#8217;s season and won&#8217;t be a regular starter when Bichette returns. The Cardinals are ten games out of a wild-card spot and have sold most of their significant pieces in the lineup. Ultimately, this is a minor deadline deal that addresses small-scale needs. However, the value will strengthen an AL playoff contender, which makes the trade significant.<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<p>Players mentioned:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/dejonpa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul DeJong<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hicksjo03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Hicks<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=svanso000mat&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Svanson<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bichebo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-08-01_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bo Bichette<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Blue Jays filled a need in the infield, acquiring Paul DeJong in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals. Currently, the Blue Jays hold a 2 1\/2 game lead for the final American League wild card. They&#8217;ve already been active at the deadline, making a separate deal with the Cardinals for reliever Jordan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4771,"featured_media":60096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,25,7],"tags":[258,1608,2601,2600,566],"class_list":["post-60089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-cardinals","category-bluejays","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-bo-bichette","tag-jordan-hicks","tag-paul-dejong","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4771"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}