Colorado Rockies: Are the Toronto Blue Jays even more of a fit for Trevor Story now?

After the Francisco Lindor trade, one team that could be a dark horse candidate for Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story is the Toronto Blue Jays.

Now that Francisco Lindor was traded by the Cleveland Indians to the New York Mets earlier this week, Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story is, undoubtedly, the best shortstop remaining on the trade market. One of the teams that showed significant interest in Lindor and could be a fit for Story is the Toronto Blue Jays.

We discussed the Blue Jays as being a possible fit for Story and Nolan Arenado as well in this article a month ago and in that, we discussed how they have a pretty good shortstop that is a young and controllable one at that in Bo Bichette, the son of former Blake Street Bomber and Rockies coach Dante Bichette. The Rockies would love to get Bichette and others as part of a massive haul if they did trade Story. However, if the trade return for Lindor is any indication, Bichette would not be in the deal. If he was, it would likely be a 1-for-1 trade.

Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com reported that the Blue Jays offered the Indians a trade for Lindor and the pieces in the return had a higher ceiling but the Indians took the Mets offer because it balanced both their near-term and long-term goals.

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But would the Blue Jays be willing to give that same offer for Story? The Blue Jays team president and general manager, Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, both came from Cleveland and they were two of the main people in Cleveland when they drafted Lindor back in 2011 since Shapiro was the Indians team president and Atkins was the Indians director of player development.

But Shapiro and Atkins also have close ties to some people that are currently in or formerly in the Rockies organization, like former Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd, who was the Indians assistant GM when Shapiro was the director of player development and, later, a fellow assistant GM with the Indians in the 1990s. Atkins was also drafted as a player by O’Dowd and Shapiro.

Another close tie to the Rockies of today that Atkins and Shapiro have is with Rockies manager Bud Black. Black was a player, special assistant to the GM, and minor league coach with the Indians in the mid-to the late-90s as well. The Indians MLB pitching coach for much of that period in the late 1990s was Mark Wiley, who is currently the Rockies Director of Pitching Operations.

The Rockies will have to make sure that they don’t repeat what they did the last time they traded the best shortstop in franchise history. When they traded Troy Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays, the Rockies return did not pan out at all for them. They got Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro, Jesus Tinoco, and Jose Reyes. Only Tinoco is remaining in the Rockies organization.

The Blue Jays have plenty of prospects and/or young, controllable MLB talent that the Rockies could acquire if the Blue Jays want Story enough. But the Rockies shouldn’t trade Story just to trade him in a salary dump as the Indians did with Lindor. They need to hit a home run with the deal.