Should the Blue Jays buy or sell at the trade deadline?

The Toronto Blue Jays are in a difficult spot 74 games into the season. Their starters have been inconsistent, their bullpen is depleted with injuries and, most importantly, their offense has been underwhelmingly disappointing. 

For the past several weeks, the Jays have been hovering just around the .500 mark, but after getting swept (for the first time this season) by the Red Sox earlier this week, they sit four games below at 35-39. 

On paper, this team has the talent to make the playoffs and seriously push for the American League pennant. However, due to several of its stars underperforming and only a mediocre farm system, there is lots of debate as to whether or not the Blue Jays should buy or sell at the trade deadline. 

Right now, it makes sense for the Blue Jays to sell at the trade deadline and, if all goes well, go into a mini/quick readjustment period. 

Why a readjustment rather than a rebuild? Well, the organization doesn't need to give away everybody and start from the bottom. 

The Jays have some players on dead contracts who are not living up to expectations and taking critical playing time away from other players waiting for their moment. 

The list of players that the Blue Jays should look to move includes (but is not limited to) Yusei Kikuchi, Jordan Romano, Bo Bichette, George Springer and Kevin Kiermaier, all of whom have generated some sort of interest over the past six months. 

Although their farm system isn’t overloaded with talent, there are a couple of players who look to be major league-ready and are deserving of major league reps. 

Spencer Horwitz was called up earlier this month and has shown he could be a part of this organization's future. Now, the team needs to see what it has with its second- and sixth-ranked prospects, Orelvis Martinez and Addison Barger. (Barger has had a very limited number of ABs, and Martinez is yet to see the field after being called up on Tuesday.)

The next step after that is to call up MLB's No. 38-ranked prospect, Ricky Tiedemann, when he returns from his elbow injury. 

Once these players, followed by a few more, join the big-league roster and show their worth, the Blue Jays would have a promising young core of players to build around. 

That, combined with their remaining existing pieces and the return they get for trading some of their stars (prospects and more spending money), would put the team in a very pleasant situation.