Olney: Jays should focus on adding left-handed bat ahead of deadline

Throughout the 2022 Major League Baseball season, the chatter surrounding the Blue Jays has been the need to upgrade their pitching staff ahead of the Aug. 2 trade deadline. 

ESPN Baseball Insider Buster Olney, however, has different ideas for the Blue Jays, who currently sit third place in the American League East division and hold the second wild card spot for the playoffs.

"Their absolute focus needs to be on trying to balance the lineup, trying to get more impact ... the priority for me if I’m [Blue Jays General Manager] Ross [Atkins] is I’m getting a left-handed hitter," said Olney.

"Just watching the broadcast last night, they were talking about those rare instances in which an opposing team starts a left hander – they see so few of them that they kind of struggle, like a left hander is an outlier for this group," he said.

ESPN MLB insider Buster Olney joins First Up to talk concern for Alek Manoah down the stretch, Toronto's offensive inconsistency, Alejandro Kirk's importance, potential changes to the Home Run Derby, Jays' trade targets, Toronto's World Series chances and more.

Olney pointed to the Jays 5-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Monday as a example of the team's weakness against left-handed pitchers.

"They [play against] someone like a Cole Irvin last night who – let’s face it – you look at the lineup and you look at his stuff and you say 'they’re going to kill him, they’re going to destroy him' but they’re off balance because they don’t see that kind of guy; they don’t see soft-tossing lefties," Olney said.

"Typically a left-handed bat against a right-handed pitcher is a favourable matchup," he added. "The Blue Jays have, by far, the lowest percentage (of favourable matchups) since they started