Whenever a big league team decides to sell off assets, the hope is to maximize their value, and a lot of that has to do with timing.
That’s one of the reasons that we’re seeing so much discussion about the Blue Jays selling off their veterans before the July 31st trade deadline, whether it’s players on expiring contracts like Justin Smoak, or others who have at least an additional year of contract control, like Marcus Stroman and Ken Giles.
At this stage of the rebuild it makes at least some sense for the Blue Jays to explore trading all or a at least a few of their most valuable players, even if you could make a solid argument to the contrary.