As the trade deadline approaches, Toronto Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ has been trending in the wrong direction. The 35-year-old has posted a 0-3 record with a 7.41 ERA in his four July starts and reports now indicate that the Jays’ price for Happ in the market is dropping.

ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney believes that Happ’s poor stretch has impacted his value, but as the deadline gets closer, someone will pull the trigger on a deal.

“His struggles over the last month and the fact that he hasn’t performed as well and had some ugly outings, most notably against the Yankees, has kinda scared away some teams,” Olney said on Landsberg in the Morning on Wednesday.

“At the end of June it looked like he was going to be the guy everyone wanted and now the narrative around him is, with his stuff, is he really going to be an upgrade against the good teams in the postseason? So, it’s not surprising that the prices have come down.”

“I do think he gets moved and I do think it will be a case where, in the last 72 hours before the deadline, some team will say, ‘he’s better than what we have, let’s move forward.’ ”

Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna made his first rehab appearance for the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Tuesday, as he makes his way back to the Major League roster from a 75-game suspension for violating the league’s joint domestic violence policy.

While there are rumours that the Jays are shopping the 23-year-old, Onley does not believe any deals are close or that many teams even want their names associated with the pitcher.

“I can’t actually identify any team that’s deep into discussions (on Osuna) and you understand why,” said Olney.   “I might actually be having executives lie to me because they don’t want to have it out there and percolate in their local media that they are talking about acquiring a player who is serving a suspension for domestic violence and I have been told flat out by teams ‘we’re not touching him.’ ”

Onley also thinks that from a baseball perspective, the Jays would be moving the player at the bottom of his value.

“If the Blue Jays trade Roberto Osuna in the current situation, they are probably going to wind up getting 40 or 50 cents on the dollar in terms of what his baseball value would be and it would be a case of them washing their hands of it saying, we do not want this player in our organization given what we know.”

Jon Heyman of Fancred reported on Tuesday that several teams have checked in on starter Marcus Stroman, but the belief is that, with the control the Jays still have on the player, they would not be making a move.

Stroman will not be eligible for free agency until 2021 and is currently struggling through his worst MLB season with a 3-7 record and a 5.42 ERA in 13 starts and 73 innings.

“What I’ve heard from other teams is that they don’t think the Blue Jays are going to trade him,” said Olney.  “If you’re trading him now, you’re trading him when his value is down."