Bruce Brown:

Brown was acquired by the Raptors in the Pascal Siakam trade. Right now he’s in the prime of his career and has done well being a solid role player. He makes sense to stay on the Raptors because he’s a good shooter and the Raptors could use good shooters to surround Scottie. I think Bruce Brown makes a lot of sense to stay a Raptor especially until the end of the season to help mentor Quickley when it comes to being a guard. I also think Brown and just play a very useful role on the roster. But I can also see a good reason to trade him. He’s supposedly worth a 1st or 2 or a possible solid young player with potential. Overall I think the decision will be very interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing the Raptors decision. In my opinion I think the Raptors trade Bruce Brown.

Dennis Schroeder:

Dennis Schroeder has played a very interesting role on the 2023–24 Raptors going from being a starter to being a 6th man and being the 2nd PG behind Quickley. Schroeder’s fit with the team has been very inconsistent going from having 10 point games to 22 point games with 7 assists going to 8 points 1 assist. Schroeder, like Brown, is also in the prime of his career just like Brown. I feel like Schroeder has been a lot better since the trades and has started to settle into his role as the Raptors 6 man. We also have him for the 2024–25 season. For me, I think the Raptors should keep Schroeder because he’s still under control for next year and he fits part of what a good BBQ bench could look like. Schroeder also has the ability to provide a solid layer of depth off of the bench.

Chris Boucher:

Chris Boucher is the last remaining from the championship run. Boucher this year has started to get his playing time compared to the past couple of years. We’ve had Darko try out some interesting lines that have Boucher on the bench for more time. I still think Boucher can provide a solid present to a team. He’s shown that he can still be a good 7th/8th man on a contending team. I think the Raptors should trade Boucher and get a younger player back and let Boucher help a team compete for a championship.

Gary Trent jr:

Heading into the season Gary Trent Jr was one of the core pieces to the roster. We were looking at GTJ as one of the main pieces along Scottie long term. Now after a disappointing season so far and with his contract expiring at the end of the season his future with the Raptors is a lot more murky. Trent has still had some moments this year but they’ve been a lot more far and in between. To me I’d be open to keeping Trent but if we could get a younger player back with potential then I’d also accept that and do that right away. Overall I think we should trade GTJ more than we should keep him to make more cap space for this summer. Then we can also give Gradey Dick and some of the younger players that we acquire in more trades some more playing time.

Thad Young and Otto Porter Jr:

Both Thad Young and Otto Porter Jr are old and haven’t had too much playing but have still gotten enough playing that it can be seen as taking valuable minutes away from younger players. To me I’d trade them or even waive them to give some of the younger players minutes.

Conclusion:

To me I’d try to trade as many of these players as possible, maybe with the exception of Schroder because I still think he could play a good role on the Raptors going forward. The next week and a bit will tell a lot about what the Raptors plans are for the rest of the year and next.

Kevin Gausman

Kevin Gausman is a top 5 pitcher in baseball. Gausman last year had a 3.16 ERA and a 2.97 FIP both of which were ranked in the top for pitchers in all of baseball in their respective stats. He also had a 5.3 fWAR which was ranked 3 overall for all of starting pitchers in baseball. This allowed Gausman to have one of the best seasons of his career and finish 3rd place in the AL Cy Young voting. Over the past 3 years Gausman has finished in the top 10 in the Cy Young voting each year. According to the steamer projections fangraphs, Gausman is projected to have a 3.47 ERA and a 3.50 FIP to go along with a projected 4.4 fWAR. In both of the 2 seasons with the Jays Gausman has had a FIP lower than his ERA. I could see Gausmans FIP being lower than 3.50 but a 3.50 FIP seems like a very good floor. I agree with fangraphs about where ERA stands though in terms of most likely outcomes for him. In 2022 he had a 3.35 ERA and then finished 2023 with a 3.16 ERA. A 3.47 seems reasonable enough though I do also see a strong possibility of Gausman having a lower ERA than 3.47 as that seems more of a middle ground. To summarize this it appears as though Gausman is on track for another elite season in terms of ERA and FIP.

Another strong aspect of Gausmans game that we’ve seen a lot has been the strikeout rate and very low walk rates that we’ve seen him put up over the past few seasons. Since 2019 Gausman has had a K/9% above 10.00 K/9s each season which is incredible. Overall, since 2019 Kevin Gausman ranks 13th in K/9% with a 10.87 K/9%. In 2023 Gausman had a 11.53 K/9% which ranked 3rd in all of MLB and was the 2nd highest K/9% of his career after 2020 where he had a 11.92 K/9%. According to steamers projections they project him to have a 10.32 K/9% which would be a little bit less than his 2021 and 2022 but his very good. While striking out batters is a good thing, it’s also a great thing to not allow free bases to batters and Kevin Gausman does that excellently too. The 3rd place finisher in the 2023 Cy Young voting had a 2.68 BB/9% which was 24th best in all of baseball. In 2022 Gausman had a 1.44 BB/9% which ranked 3rd best in MLB. Looking at fangraphs projections they expect Gausman to have a 2.41 BB/9% which would rank him 16th among the 2023 rankings.

To summarize, what we should expect from the elite strikeout artist in 2024 is another dominant season being among the AL pitchers leaders in ERA, FIP and K/9%, while having one of the lowest BB/9% in MLB. You should be absolutely hyped to have him on our team.

Dalton Varsho

Dalton Varsho’s 1st Blue Jays season was bad offensively. But Varsho also is one of the best defensive players in baseball, especially in the outfield. The runner up for the glove award in left field in 2023, Varsho had a 11 DRS in LF and a 18 DRS in center field in 2023. To add to this in LF in 2023 Varsho had a 1 OOA and in center field he had a 10 OOA. Varsho spent most of his time in 2023 in left field. In 2024 we should see more of a split between the two positions and maybe even more time in center field than left field in 2024 if some more free agents moves happen for some outfielders. You should be very excited to see Dalton Varsho play in 2024 because you are already seeing one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball but you’ll see that aspect of his game highlighted more when he spends more time in center field.

Offensively in 2022, he hit .235 and had a .302 OBP. In 2023 Varsho regressed offensively, batting .220 and having a .285 OBP. He also saw the power regress by hitting only 20 home runs compared to hitting 27 with the Diamondbacks in 2022. I believe there’s still a lot of untapped potential in the bat. In both 2021 and 2022 Varsho was about a league average hitter or slightly above, 100 wRC+ in 2021 and 107 wRC+ in 2022 before the drop off to having an 85 wRC+ this year. Varsho having two seasons being a league average hitter or better means he clearly has it in him to be better than what he showed in his first season as a Blue Jay. With some positive regression and some adjustments Varsho should be able to get back to that 107 wRC+ level offensively.

Looking ahead to 2024 Dalton Varsho should get a lot more time in center field and should be a better hitter than he was in 2023. The floor is already very solid for him, demonstrated by his 2.1 fWAR season in 2023 while having a down year offensively and playing a lot more left field than center field. Getting more time in center field and having a bounce back at the plate could easily raise that fWAR to 4+ going into 2024. Get excited for a young outfielder in the prime of his career making a big impact on the club next year because the Varsho resurgence season will be upon us soon.

Genesis Cabrera

Did anyone expect Genesis Cabrera to be as good as he was with the Jays in 2023, nope. He was exceptional with the Blue Jays after being acquired from the Cardinals in a deal just before the trade deadline. For the season, Cabrera had a 4.04 ERA and a 4.44 FIP. It was nothing great or elite but it wasn’t bad. After being acquired by the Blue Jays Cabrera had a 2.66 ERA in 23.2 innings.

He had been known with the Cardinals for being very wild when it comes to his command on his pitches. After being acquired by Toronto he settled down and had a 0.97 WHIP and 2.28 BB/9%. This was a huge improvement from his 5.06 BB/9% in the first half of 2023 with the Cardinals. While I doubt he can repeat having a 2.28 BB/9% I’m hoping he can have a 3.50 or some BB/9% which would be a solid number between the 2. While his BB/9% went down so did his K/9% which sat at 10.69% with the Cardinals before dipping to 7.61% with the Blue Jays. It seems like he sacrificed some of the K/9% for some contact and pitching in the zone more often which seemed to work.

While this worked very well last year we’ll have to wait to see if it is sustainable going into 2024. Fangraphs projects him to have a 4.15 ERA and a 4.52 FIP. They also project his K/9% to go back up to 9.06% and his BB/9% to go up to 4.05% in 2024. For me I’m a little more optimistic with him. I think if he can find some more balance between the K/9% having control he could be really really good. In my opinion going into next year we should be very optimistic about him and view him as one of our better relievers. We’ve seen abilities and the potential and with a offseason with the coaching staff that clearly helped him to be very good with the club last year they should hopefully be able to reach another level going into 2024.

Twitter: @BzBaseball1

With the Toronto Raptors trading OG Anunoby for Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett the Raptors seem to be starting to make decisions that are focused on the future. Masai has finally woken up from his nap and has seen that the Raptors need to make moves focused on building around Scottie and looking towards the future. With that all being said I’d like to take a look at what to focus on the Raptors between now and the end of the season.

Gary Trent jr

Between now and the end of the season I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with Gary Trent Jr. Trent has averaged 11.5 PPG and 1.7 APG so far this season. Trent was expected to be better and was envisioned to play a larger role before the season started. Now all the way in January Trent hasn’t really gotten in any grove yet. GTJ will also be a unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and with Pascal Siakam also a unrestricted free agent and Immanuel Quickley a restricted free agent it will be tough to bring all 3 back. The Raptors already would have cap concerns if they even brought back 2 out of 3. To me this signals that GTJ will or should be traded. The OG trade and Gradey Dick heading to the G-League soon should mark the beginning of the end of GTJ. Getting Quickley and Barrett, two young guards under team control for at least 4 years, should make Trent’s role on the team a bench player. With this decreasing Trent’s role I doubt he would want to come back in the first place. Then you have to figure Gradey Dicks role on the team and how he could figure into a similar role to Trent. In my opinion I believe GTJ will be traded at the deadline. I believe the best return for him could be a young player early on in the rookie contract and an older player on an expiring deal. These next few weeks leading up to the trade deadline will be huge for Gary Trent Jr and what happens with him.

Scottie Barnes

Scottie Barnes has finally taken the leap that we all expected. Scottie has averaged 21 PPG, 9 RPG and 6 APG. Scottie has a very solid chance of making the all star team this year for the first year ever. For the rest of this season I’ll be interested in seeing if Scottie makes the all star team and then I’ll be watching to see how his chemistry with the new players like Quickley and RJ along with other players who the Raptors will hopefully trade for at the deadline will look like. Scottie and Quickley already look like a very good fit for each other on paper and I will be looking to see if that translates into games. Another thing I’m interested in seeing with Scottie is if he can maybe take another leap scoring wise and prove that he can maybe be more than just an all star type player. It’ll be interesting to see how he plays after the trade deadline when more players will presumably be traded. To summarize, i’m interested in seeing how Scottie plays with the new players and if he can take another scoring leap in the 2nd half of the season.

Immanuel Quickley

Immanuel Quickley was a Kentucky point guard so you know what that means. He will be a star. Quickley is very fast and a very good scorer as well. In limited minutes (he’s averaging 24 minutes a game) this season he has averaged 15/3/2.5. Over the next few months I’d first and foremost like to see Quickly get more minutes and then secondly, I would love to see him demonstrate that his abilities can contrast Scottie well. I’m hoping to see Quickley have more minutes and continue to keep his shots very efficient in those extra minutes. So he’s been very efficient by having a. 45% FG% and a 39.5% 3P% this year. Overall I’m very excited to see Quickley get more minutes and it will be interesting to watch to see how he develops next to Scottie. I’m expecting he will average 20+ points in the second half.

RJ Barrett

RJ Barrett was once the 3rd overall pick. Since then there’s been lots of highs and lows. He’s still only 23 years old and he’s putting up solid numbers. He’s averaged 18/4/2.4 per games this season. RJ is great at driving the basketball and also has a bit of 3 point shooting, 33.3% this year. RJ doesn’t seem like the best fit next to Scottie and Pascal but again still being only 23 he still has potential to grow. While at times it appears he forgets about his surrounding players, like in the 4th Quarter in his 1st game being a Raptor when he tried to take the ball for himself rather than passing it to Quickley who was open, he still gives the Raptors points and solid efficiency. Between now and the end of the regular season I’m going to be interested in seeing if RJ can incorporate his teammates in a few more plays. All in all I think RJ has lots of room for growth and it’ll be interesting to see how much he grows in the next few months.

Gradey Dick

Gradey Dick hasn’t played much this year. Recently when talking to the media Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said that they have Gradey on a special program. Apparently Gradey will play in some G-League games soon and then come back up to the NBA and get some rotation minutes. I’m going to focus on seeing how many minutes Gradey gets and how many shots he gets. Gradey should be a big part of the team next year so the 2nd half of the season will be big in seeing what role he could play next year.

Pascal Siakam

Pascal Siakam is a superstar. I think between now and the end of the season Pascal is going to get traded. This whole 2nd half could completely change if Pascal gets traded. He’s averaging 22/6/5 in probably what you could consider a down year for him. He’s been an All-NBA player and an All-Star twice. Pascal will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and will be looking at the super max. With the Raptors potentially in cap trouble if they were to keep him along with having a seemingly limited ceiling with this group I believe Pascal will be moved. This will be the thing I keep an eye on the most heading up to the trade deadline. If Pascal gets traded the Raptors will probably get some players who will be UFAs at the end of the season along with a couple of young players with upside. If Pascal stays, the Raptors will probably try and compete for a play-in spot. They will also take the risk of potentially losing him for nothing in free agency. To me it seems the safest bet is on trading Pascal and building around Scottie, Quickley and maybe RJ and Gradey

To Conclude

These next few months will be very interesting for the Raptors and what they decide to do. The growth of the young will should tell a lot about how good this team can be going into 2024. What happens with the veterans like Pascal and Gary Trent Jr, will say a lot about the potential surrounding pieces to Barnes and Quickley look like and could bring a potential new dynamic to the team heading into 2024. Either way the Raptors will be very intriguing to watch for the next few months and I’m very excited to see what happens.