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Toronto Blue Jays

After 22-year playoff drought, Blue Jays know it's time to pay the Price

Bob Nightengale
USA TODAY Sports

Hello, postseason.

With Troy Tulowitzki in the fold and stars like Jose Bautista still in their prime, it's time for the Blue Jays to go all-in on the playoffs.

It’s the Toronto Blue Jays. Remember us?

We were last seen deep in October 22 years ago, winning back-to-back World Series championships, and providing baseball with one of its most dramatic moments with Joe Carter’s walk-off World Series homer.

We went into hibernation for the last two decades, not coming close to making the playoffs since realignment in 1994, never winning more than 88 games, and finishing higher than third place only once.

Well, baby, we’re back.

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We just picked up the greatest pitcher in the trade market, David Price from the Detroit Tigers. Three days ago, we got the best position player on the market in All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockies, along with veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins.

And we still may not be done by Friday’s non-waiver trade deadline, working the phones to grab another starter or reliever.

Eat your heart out, big boys. Yeah, we’re talking about you, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.

The Dodgers wanted to enter August having either Price or Cole Hamels in their rotation, but end up with neither. They instead acquired Mat Latos from the Miami Marlins and Alex Wood from the Atlanta Braves, hoping it will work.

And we’re still waiting for the Yankees to make a move, any move, besides grabbing Dustin Ackley off the Seattle Mariners’ scrap heap.

The Dodgers, whose payroll is close to $300 million after picking up $42 million in their three-way deal with the Braves and Miami Marlins, still believe they can win the World Series without sacrificing their prized prospects for Price or Hamels.

Maybe they’ll be right, relying on Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke.

Maybe they’ll be on their living room couch in November, watching another team hoisting the World Series trophy, just as they have the last 27 years since last winning it in 1988. Then again, maybe the Dodgers and Yankees can wait.

The Blue Jays can’t.

Sure, we know that even after procuring the two biggest trophies at the trade deadline, it’s a little early to order playoff tickets. We learned our lesson last year when the Oakland A’s cleaned up in July, and their playoff run lasted all of one game against the Kansas City Royals.

The Blue Jays entered Thursday evening with a 51-51 record, seven games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East. If the season ended today, the Blue Jays would be home again in October. They are five games behind the Los Angeles Angels for the first wild-card spot, and two games behind the Minnesota Twins for the second wild-card spot.

Yet, the numbers don’t add up to the talent. They’ve got the greatest offense in the non-PED era, scoring 536 runs this year — 78 more than any club in baseball — and outscoring their opposition by 101 runs.

It’s just that when your pitching staff is yielding a 4.02 ERA, fourth-worst in the league, with the fewest saves (16) in baseball, you plummet to mediocrity.

The Blue Jays certainly have taken care of that blemish. They have 13 games left against the Yankees, and Price is tentatively aligned to start three of those.

"They have a good thing going right now in Toronto," Price said. "They’ve been in that situation before and they didn’t make these types of moves. It definitely shows you that they want to win right now. You got to respect that. You have to like it. That’s what you want to be a part of."

Sure, it probably wasn’t easy for the Blue Jays to give up top prospect Daniel Norris and left-handers Matt Boyd and Jairo Labourt for a two-month rental. Well, three months if things go well.

But when you’ve waited more than 22 years, and your beloved president, Paul Beeston, is leaving at the end of the year, and your GM, Alex Anthopoulos, is on the hot seat, why not go for it?

It took less than six hours for Anthopoulos to complete the deal, wrapping up the details at 3 in the morning.

When Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista woke up, he was so stunned when he heard the rumors, he immediately sent a text message to Anthopoulos, asking if it was true. When Anthopoulos confirmed it, Bautista sent another text: "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The future in Toronto is now.

"You’re always focused on the short and long term," Anthopoulos said. "We still feel like we have a ton of young prospects, a ton of young players. It’s more of a reflection of the belief of these guys on the roster. We’re a good team, and Price makes us stronger. We’re trying to give ourselves the best opportunity to get in the playoffs."

While Tulowitzki is the long-term, and under the Blue Jays’ control through 2020, Price is the short-term, under control until the Blue Jays’ final game of the season. He’s a free agent after the World Series, and considering he’s going to get north of the border of $200 million, he’ll be playing south of the Canadian border in 2016.

"I’d love to acquire David Price with three years of control," Anthopoulos said. "These great superstar players rarely become available. There’s certainly a cost to acquiring those guys. That certainty and probability of performance, there’s something to be said for that.

"I think everybody would love to have David Price in their organization for a long time. We have to get in line."

If Price delivers a World Series to Toronto, who cares about any damage to the future. The Blue Jays have an obligation to deliver a championship-caliber team to their city, and if they sat pat and didn’t acquire pitching help, they would have had a clubhouse mutiny.

You don’t have this kind of explosive offense, and waste it playing home-run derby every night. They owed it to themselves to go for the jugular.

"I come in this locker room," Tulowitzki said, "expecting to win. Not to say, 'OK, well next year this is what we’re going to do.'

"Right now we can win. Guys in the locker room know that. I’m just excited to be a part of it."

We’ll see in these final hours before the 4 p.m. ET deadline who else comes along and joins the Blue Jays on their World Series parade route.

It’s hard to fathom they’ll be the only AL East team to make a major move. Come on, does anyone really believe the Yankees will stay pat? Can someone wake up the Orioles? The Rays are always creative.

The Yankees, of course, have everyone’s attention. They’ve been quiet. They keep insisting they won’t trade any of their top four prospects, but no one in baseball believes them.

They just placed starter Michael Pineda on the disabled list with a strained forearm, and he could be out a month. They are an Alex Rodriguez or Mark Teixeira strained hamstring from coming back to the pack. So does anyone really believe the Yankees will let a prospect get in the way of acquiring a starter like Yovani Gallardo of Texas or Mike Leake of Cincinnati?

Makes no sense. Little has in this zany week.

Follow columnist Bob Nightengale on Twitter @BNightengale.

GALLERY: 2015 MLB TRADE DEADLINE TRACKER

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