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Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher David Price is set to hit free agency as one of the most prized targets on the market this winter. 

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Blue Jays Interested in Re-Signing Price

Monday, Oct. 26

“We have strong interest in David Price coming back here,” Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said Monday, per the team’s official Twitter account. “We will be in the game.”

Price, when asked if he would be back with the Blue Jays after the team was eliminated in the American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals, simply said, “I don’t know yet,” though he did say he would “absolutely” consider re-signing, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. 

He won’t come cheap. Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe spoke to eight anonymous managers, scouts and general managers, who all agreed that Price would be the top pitcher on the market and should garner a deal in the range of seven years and $210 million. They speculated that the Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs were all logical destinations for the pitcher.

Price, 30, was once again one of the top pitchers in baseball in 2015, finishing 18-5 with a 2.45 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 225 strikeouts in 220.1 innings pitched in stints with the Detroit Tigers and Blue Jays.

While his trend of postseason struggles continued—he went 1-2 with a 6.17 ERA in 23.1 innings pitched for the Blue Jays in this year’s playoffs—he’s a true ace and one of the game’s finest left-handed pitchers, making him a rare commodity. 

The Blue Jays will need to fork out a hefty sum of cash to keep him, but if they hope to return to the postseason in 2016 and win a World Series, the investment would appear to be a worthwhile, and perhaps even necessary, one.

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The shake-up in Los Angeles has already started. 

The Dodgers dropped the biggest, though hardly the most surprising, news of the day early Thursday morning when they and manager Don Mattingly mutually decided to separate. That is how the team has termed its parting with its manager, who was under contract through next season.

While this is a relatively significant happening for the Dodgers, it is far from their biggest decision as the offseason approaches for an organization entering its second winter under the direction of the Whiz Kid Dream Team—president Andrew Friedman, general manager Farhan Zaidi and senior VP of baseball operations Josh Byrnes, among others.

Zack Greinke’s pending and probable opt-out is easily the team’s biggest offseason event to this point. He is one of the game’s true aces and helped carry the Dodgers to a third consecutive National League West title in 2015 with arguably the best season of his stellar career.

Greinke has until the third day after the World Series to opt out of his current six-year, $147 million contract, of which he just completed his third season. He has $71 million remaining on the current deal, but he would get a significant raise—possibly more than 100 percent—on the open market. Team sources have told Bleacher Report they fully expect Greinke to become a free agent via that clause, and that belief has been reported by other sources as well.

How Greinke’s negotiations with the Dodgers, and other teams, play out over the next couple of months will have a seismic effect on the free-agent market and the Dodgers’ future.

“We’d love to keep him,” Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez told reporters, including MLB.com’s Lyle Spencer, after the team’s Game 5 loss to the New York Mets in the NL Division Series. “He’s a big part of this team. He’s been incredible the whole time he’s been here. We love him. We hope he opts to stay.”

Because Greinke has been so incredible in his three seasons with the Dodgers, and because he is coming off a historic season—1.66 ERA, 19-3 record, 225 ERA+, 0.844 WHIP—his opt-out could not come at a better time. It is totally reasonable to expect Greinke to command a deal of five or six years, and something in the area of $150 million is not so far-fetched, even with the known risks that accompany signing a pitcher entering his age-32 season.

Greinke openly spoke about the Dodgers offering him the most money as the reason why he ended up with them prior to the 2013 season, so there is little reason to think he would not make his next decision based on money. If that is the case, it is hard to see any organization being able or willing to outbid the Dodgers, who know better than anyone what Greinke’s production, even as it starts to decline, means to a rotation. Then again, the Dodgers’ analytical front office knows the inherent drawbacks of being saddled with an aging and/or declining player who is owed gobs of dough.

Mattingly couldn’t get out of the parking lot fast enough and it doesn’t matter who manages in 2016 unless they resign Greinke. #Dodgers

— Paul Lo Duca (@paulloduca16) October 22, 2015

If Greinke were willing to sign a shorter deal, say for four years, for less overall money, say $110 million for an average annual value of $27.5 million, the Dodgers might be fine with sliding that contract across the table—the AAV of that deal would be more than a six-year, $150 million one ($25 million). Also, Greinke, not known to hold his tongue or lie, thinks quite highly of his current organization.

“It’s got to be the best franchise in the game, I would think,” Greinke told reporters the night the team’s season ended. “They’re in a great situation.”

But what if Greinke wants something new? What if the Dodgers decide Greinke’s age and market value aren’t worth their nine figures? Then what?

Well, the Dodgers have plenty of other options.

This offseason’s free-agent market is loaded with starting pitching, most notably David Price. The problem with Price is that he could command around $200 million despite his shaky postseason performances, and the Dodgers already have an ace with a contract exceeding that mark in Clayton Kershaw. If the Dodgers were willing to go that route with Price, they might as well re-up with Greinke—signing both is highly unlikely, though not totally out of the question for a team that annually draws more than 3 million fans and has one of the largest television rights deals in the game.

If not Price or Greinke, then the Dodgers could pick from the likes of Johnny Cueto or Jordan Zimmermann. And if they want to sign another, Scott Kazmir, Jeff Samrardzija, Mike Leake and Yovani Gallardo are possibilities.

What is known for sure is that the Dodgers cannot and will not sit idle. They already parted with Mattingly, and parting with Greinke without replacing his production would be a step in the wrong direction, even with the underrated Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy expected back in the rotation at some point next season and Alex Wood expected to occupy a spot.

The Dodgers will not win with Kershaw and a cast of backup singers. They need another co-ace to pair with him. Who that might be all depends on how the market looks in about a month, and by being one of the heavy hitters, the Dodgers are likely to help shape it by attacking either Greinke or Price, or both or neither.

Because of their money, current standing and future outlook, the decision is theirs. And it will be their most critical of this offseason.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

For all the numbers, data, formulas and eyeball scouting, the decision-makers in Major League Baseball are still human—sometimes.

They are prone to non-analytical judgments. They have feelings. They watch the postseason like everyone else. They feel the ups and the downs, and they see and feel the emotion involved with it all.

The point being, every year we see how the postseason can alter the free-agent and trade markets during the winter. Whether a player’s value drops or rises because of playoff performance, or a team realizes a weakness it needs to address, the postseason annually shifts the offseason landscape, even if it’s just a little bit.

Pablo Sandoval benefitted from this last year. After a playoff run with the San Francisco Giants that saw him bat .366/.423/.465 with an .888 OPS despite not hitting a home run, Sandoval’s value soared in the eyes of at least one organization, and the Boston Red Sox ended up paying him $95 million over five years.

It worked in the opposite way for James Shields. After he had a 6.12 ERA in five playoff starts for the Kansas City Royals last fall, Shields suddenly became even older, and the innings on his arm became heavier. Once seen as a premier free-agent pitcher, the right-hander waited until February before signing a four-year, $75 million deal with the San Diego Padres while other pitchers have routinely surpassed nine figures—age played a big role in those signings, but some had weaker track records than Shields.

We are nearly through this year’s postseason, and the same storylines have already played out for some players and teams. The market has been altered based on early postseason exits and individual performances. Eventually track records and age are the most important things in evaluating these situations, but there is no doubt the postseason can help or hurt certain cases.

Impact on Free Agency

The top free agents playing in this postseason were David Price, Zack Greinke, Yoenis Cespedes and Jason Heyward, in random order. None of them have used these playoffs to impact their future earnings more than Price, but keep in mind it always takes only one team to be willing to pay a top-end ticket.

It could be argued that through the regular season, Price was the top starter on the open market. After posting a 2.45 ERA and 161 ERA+, the left-hander could have been looking for a contract topping $200 million, putting him in the neighborhood of Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer.

However, Price has a 7.02 ERA in this postseason, and it is 5.65 over his last eight playoff appearances. He has been so questionable, the Toronto Blue Jays had the option of saving Price for a series-deciding Game 5 start in the American League Division Series, but they elected to use Price in relief instead and start Marcus Stroman in Game 5. That has given Price just two starts through Toronto’s first nine 10 games, which is more like a No. 3 or 4 starter rather than an ace.

Once again, though, it only takes one team willing to pay. With the Los Angeles Dodgers having their lack of rotation depth exposed in the National League Division Series and the New York Yankees lacking depth all season, Price can market himself to two of the richest franchises in sports history.

Greinke, Cespedes and Heyward have not done a whole lot to alter their stocks, although Heyward’s 1.080 OPS in 16 NLDS plate appearances was impressive. One man who has: New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy.

Crazy: https://t.co/DJZuzBSJUG #Stud pic.twitter.com/1SEUbIQuBQ

— MLB (@MLB) October 22, 2015

Murphy is hitting .421/.436/1.026 this postseason with an uncharacteristic seven home runs in nine games. Even with objective and informed front offices, that production could hold some weight. Then again, the fact that the Mets are reportedly unwilling to re-sign Murphy is a huge albatross on his eventual value.

“He’s been great, really great,” a source told Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News, “but it changes nothing.” 

Further hurting Murphy’s value is that the Mets now plan to make him a qualifying offer of $15.8 million because he’s been so good in the postseason, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. It’s likely a PR decision since the Mets do not want to pay him that much while they have a seemingly capable second base prospect in Dilson Herrera waiting his turn, but ultimately it could mean Murphy is shied away from because he would be tied to draft compensation.

His great postseason to this point has served him well, but it might also hurt him by pulling in a qualifying offer. Then again, there are always the Yankees with their hole at second base and short right field porch.

Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada has also helped his stock in this postseason with five earned runs allowed in three starts (19.1 innings, 2.33 ERA). It has not been a fluke, either, as his ERA in his final 20 regular-season starts was 2.62 in 123.2 innings.

His value won’t rise dramatically because he will be 33 next July, but he has established himself as a capable full-time back-end starter at the very least, and a quality No. 3 at best. Without a doubt, he has earned himself a strong market that could range from the Dodgers to the Boston Red Sox.

“He’s looking pretty,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told reporters. “He’s a free agent. The timing is important for him.”

Impact on Trade Market

The trade market has been affected much less by the postseason than the free-agent market, mainly because guys like Murphy and Estrada will be free agents. If they were under contract beyond this season, their trade values would have soared. Also, any team weakness exposed was already known. Still, the playoffs have highlighted certain needs for certain teams.

The Dodgers bullpen issues have been known for most of the regular season since its 3.91 ERA was in the bottom half of the National League. In this postseason, that jumped to 4.61 in 13.2 innings (seven earned runs) despite its 18 strikeouts. Setup man Chris Hatcher and closer Kenley Jansen were very good—not allowing a run and striking out seven in a combined seven innings. 

In fact, four other Dodger relievers were not scored on in the NLDS against the Mets, although none of them pitched more than 1.1 innings. All of the damage came against regular-season starter Alex Wood (four runs in two innings) and Pedro Baez (three runs in 0.1 innings over two appearances).

Again, this postseason did not expose what was unknown. And this is also not a complete teardown and rebuild for the Dodgers front office, which is heading into its second offseason. An arm here or there could suffice just fine, and if they aren’t wiling to pay for such arms, they could attempt to pry away quality arms from any number of teams, including the Kansas City Royals.

The Yankees played only one postseason game, losing the American League Wild Card, but the overall inconsistency and fragileness of their rotation all season has them in the market for starting pitching. If they aren’t willing to pay for it on the open market, they are likely to turn to trade options, which could include Shields, Tyson Ross or anybody the Oakland A’s employ.

Other playoff teams could be in on rotation parts as well. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs could be two of them, while the St. Louis Cardinals might be in the market for a bat.

Whatever way this postseason plays out, it has already affected the offseason transaction season. Exactly how much it has is a matter of waiting and seeing.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There is enough of a sample size to pass judgment.

The American League and National League Championship Series are both two games old, and both are somewhat surprisingly 2-0 in favor of the teams with home-field advantage. The Kansas City Royals and New York Mets are two wins away from heading to the 2015 World Series, but as the division series reminded us, you cannot count out the trailing teams. 

The Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs return home to try to climb back into their respective series, but through two games, the takeaways are not glowing for either club or some of their high-profile players. That makes their next three home games all the more critical, lest they want to head back on the road facing elimination.

Before we get there, though, here are five important conclusions based on the championship series to this point.

Begin Slideshow

It’s too soon to know a lot about what’s coming in the MLB offseason, but at least this much is certain: David Price is going to make the big bucks.

If the free-agent-to-be has his way, it’ll be all the big bucks. Nobody should be surprised if Price demands a contract that begins with a two followed by eight zeroes. In a day and age when Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer own contracts worth north of $200 million, that’s not an absurd price tag for a No. 1 starter.

But a No. 1 starter with a postseason track record as ugly as Price’s? At the very least, that’s something worth discussing.

The 30-year-old lefty’s postseason struggles are very much in the ether, after all. After allowing eight earned runs in 10 innings in two outings for the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Division Series, a man with a career 3.09 regular-season ERA now owns a 5.48 ERA over his last seven postseason appearances. In those, he’s struck out 35 while allowing 49 hits in 44.1 innings.

And now, the narrative of Price’s postseason struggles goes beyond just the numbers.

Knowing the alternative was to start him in a potential do-or-die Game 5, it raises one’s eyebrows that Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons used Price in relief to protect a sizable lead in Toronto’s 8-4 win over the Texas Rangers in Game 4 of the ALDS instead. 

Why? As Alex Wong of Sports on Earth noted, Gibbons actually did have his reasons:

It wasn’t an easy decision. But I thought that was the best way to win the game. Regular season, that’s different. But this is a do-or-die game for us and I’ve seen it too many times in this business, especially with the kind of lineup and the way things were stacking up for us. Get a couple guys on a long ball, it’s a totally different game. There was still a lot of game left.

But as Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports argued, it appears Gibbons never had any intention to start Price in Game 5 anyway. The task was always likely to fall to wunderkind right-hander Marcus Stroman instead.

When Price sits down at assorted negotiating tables this winter, he’ll have plenty of selling points to cycle through. As of now, however, he won’t be able to say he can be trusted beyond a shadow of a doubt in October.

But the big question, of course, is whether that should even matter.

For Price and his representatives, it obviously won’t matter. What he’s done in the regular season will matter, and that will be their ticket to pursue perhaps the richest contract ever for a starting pitcher.

You can take it from Tim Dierkes of MLB Trade Rumors:

Even back in February, $200MM (sans deferred money) was getting tossed around in regard to Price. The 30-year-old was traded to the Blue Jays on July 30th and his risen to the occasion, somehow pitching even better for his new team. The goal is now clear: exceed the seven-year, $215MM extension Clayton Kershaw signed with the Dodgers in January 2014…

All this adds up. Regardless of whether you prefer Baseball-Reference.com or FanGraphs WAR, Price has been one of the 10 most valuable pitchers in MLB since 2010. And before the postseason got in the way, he was indeed finishing 2015 on a strong note with a 2.30 ERA in 11 starts in Toronto.

As a bonus, the trade that sent him to Toronto from the Detroit Tigers barred Price from getting a qualifying offer. With no ties to draft-pick compensation to go along with his outstanding track record, he’ll have no issue standing apart from the other ace pitchers—Johnny Cueto, Jordan Zimmermann and presumably Zack Greinke—who are due to hit the open market.

And to be sure, what’s happened with Price in the postseason isn’t going to limit interest in him. He’s going to be one of the market’s hottest commodities, if not the hottest commodity.

But if the asking price is going to be north of $200 million, it will behoove teams to consider all factors. And though Price’s postseason struggles shouldn’t be a big factor, interested suitors shouldn’t write them off either.

After all, it’s safe to assume Price’s big-money contract will go the way of virtually all big-money contracts for players on the wrong side of 30: He’ll live up to it in the early portion and then slip into the twilight of his career and become drastically overpaid. That’s how these things usually work.

If so, the idea for prospective suitors will be to get the most out of that early portion. Riding Price to a postseason berth or two would be a good way to do that. Riding him all the way to a World Series or two would be even better.

And therein lies the big question: Are Price’s postseason struggles merely the result of bad luck or something tangible that could keep biting him in future postseasons?

Regarding the first possibility, there’s a simple argument to make about that being the case. We’ll leave that to Ted Berg of USA Today:

To bolster this point, it’s not as if Price has featured inferior stuff in the postseason.

As Brooks Baseball can show, his pitch selection and velocity in the postseason since 2010 pretty much reflect his pitch selection and velocity in the regular season. Also, Price hasn’t been uncharacteristically wild in the postseason. He’s walked only 3.7 percent of the batters he’s faced in the postseason since 2010, which is about as good as it gets for any pitcher.

In light of all this, an explanation for Price’s postseason struggles isn’t readily apparent. That would seem to lend credence to the notion that he’s simply been plagued by small-sample-size bad luck.

However, there is one subtle red flag.

Looking at the two appearances Price has made in the ALDS, it’s notable that seven of the eight runs he’s allowed have come on five RBI hits. Of those, four have come early in the count. Rougned Odor’s solo homer in Game 1 and Elvis Andrus’ RBI single in Game 4 came on the first pitch. Adrian Beltre’s RBI single in Game 1 came on an 0-1 pitch. Robinson Chirinos’ two-run homer in Game 1 came on a 1-0 pitch. 

Coincidence? Not really.

Getting killed early in the count has been an issue for Price in his last seven postseason outings. Per Baseball Savant, he’s been hit to the tune of a .360 average and a .720 slugging percentage on 0-0, 0-1 and 1-0 pitches. That’s compared to .246 and .373 in all other counts.

With context, that looks like it could be small-sample-size noise. But it’s not. Getting killed early in the count has also been an issue for Price in the regular season over the last six years. He’s served up a .305 average and .476 slugging percentage on 0-0, 0-1 and 1-0 counts and a .205 average and .310 slugging percentage on all other counts.

So, rather than bad luck, Price’s postseason struggles can actually be attributed to a pre-existing weakness that has been magnified in the postseason.

And this isn’t the biggest surprise. Price has a big arm and fantastic command, but his approach isn’t terribly complicated. He gets by on attacking hitters in the strike zone to get ahead, and it’s really only when he has two strikes that he’ll look to get hitters to expand. It makes perfect sense that hitters who are aggressive against him would be the ones who find the most success.

The good news, such as it is, is there’s only a small difference between the early-count aggressiveness against Price in the regular season and in the postseason. In the regular season between 2010 and 2015, hitters have swung at 36.2 percent of his 0-0, 0-1 and 1-0 pitches. In the postseason, that number has only increased to 36.4 percent.

Even still, there is something to be said about the postseason being a different animal from the regular season when it comes to aggressiveness. As Drew Fairservice noted at Fox Sports last year, hitters have been getting increasingly aggressive in the postseason ever since, you guessed it, 2010. For a guy with early-count issues such as Price, that might as well be a death sentence.

So, a $200 million contract?

Frankly, that might be a stretch to begin with in a market that’s going to be watered down by a surplus of quality pitching. As much or more than anything else, bad timing could be what bars Price from getting the mega-rich contract he’ll be seeking.

If Price does find a $200 million deal, whichever team gives it to him will be making a major roll of the dice. Deals that large are risky gambles regardless of the context. But given that his postseason struggles stem from more than just bad luck, a $200 million deal for him would have another layer of risk on top of it.

This is how the big picture is looking now, anyway. But if the Blue Jays win Game 5 on Wednesday and advance to the American League Championship Series, Price will get his chances to make revisions.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When David Price‘s first pitch crossed the plate and got Game 1 of the American League Division Series going, there was so much optimistic energy in the air at the Rogers Centre that it’s a wonder the umpiring crew didn’t signal some sort of interference.

What followed, however, was a reality check. Both for Price and the Toronto Blue Jays as a whole.

The Blue Jays’ first postseason game since Joe Carter’s World Series-winning home run in 1993 didn’t go well, as they dropped Game 1 of the ALDS to the Texas Rangers by a 5-3 final. Price did well to get through seven innings, but he allowed all five of the Rangers’ runs. Robinson Chirinos dealt the big blow with a two-run homer in the fifth, and Rougned Odor put the nail in the coffin with a solo homer in the seventh.

With the Blue Jays now down 0-1 in the best-of-five series, they must at least be concerned about the well-being of star sluggers Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista. Though the Blue Jays report they’re both fine, they’re certainly less fine than they were after exiting with head and leg injuries, respectively.

But more so than the two of them, it’s arguably Price the Blue Jays should be concerned about.

The 30-year-old ace left-hander had a huge hand in Toronto’s 40-18 showing after the first of August, posting a 2.30 ERA in 11 starts in a Blue Jays uniform after coming over from the Detroit Tigers in a July trade. In so doing, he reaffirmed his status as one of baseball’s very best pitchers.

After Thursday’s performance, though, it’s fair game to refer to Price as one of those guys. You know, a guy who just can’t get it done in the postseason.

Price was money for the Tampa Bay Rays as a reliever in the 2008 postseason, allowing just one earned run in five appearances. But after Thursday’s outing, Price now owns a 5.26 ERA in six postseason starts since 2010. In those, he’s given up 43 hits in 41.1 innings, including eight home runs.

There’s clearly only one conclusion to draw: Price is a spineless weakling who, in addition to a spine, clearly lacks the will to win in October.

Or, we could go with the less sports talk radio-y explanation that Price’s experience as a starter in the postseason consists of a small sample size. As rational beings, we can grant that weird things happen in small sample sizes.

Even still, there’s room for worry. Because right now, the question is not so much what’s caused Price’s postseason struggles as it is whether he’ll be able to change the narrative before this series is over.

After all, rather than whether Price just didn’t have the spine for the job, it makes a lot more sense to wonder whether he flopped against the Rangers simply because it was a bad matchup for him. 

Price’s whole operation hinges on getting ahead by pounding the strike zone with fastball after fastball before finishing hitters off with his changeup. He’s typically able to get away with this due to the sheer excellence of his hard stuff and how well he mixes and matches different fastballs.

But at the same time, it’s not unheard of for teams to jump on Price’s in-zone hard stuff and knock him around. That’s what the Rangers did to Price on Thursday, as four of the five hits—including both homers—came on hard stuff that was either in or just about in the zone.

Of course, all teams handle fastballs in the zone well to some degree or another. To that extent, it’s not overly surprising that this is how Price was defeated.

But we should be even less surprised that the Rangers defeated Price in this fashion. It so happens they’re very, very good at hitting hard stuff in the zone. Per Baseball Savant, the Rangers ranked fourth in MLB with a .321 average against in-zone heat and second in MLB with a .536 slugging percentage against it.

With this being the case, one can view Price’s Game 1 defeat as something of an inevitability that creates a sense of unease, if not quite a sense of dread, about him squaring off against the Rangers again in Game 5.

Of course, the Blue Jays would have to get that far in order for Price to have his shot at redemption. And after Thursday’s game, that looks like no easy task.

Exhibit A: Toronto is now down 0-1 in the series. Being down in a series right out of the gate automatically makes everything that much more difficult. In the words of Sterling Archer, duh and/or hello.

As for Exhibit B, what the Blue Jays must now hope is that the next three starters—Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada and R.A. Dickey—can succeed where Price failed. Given that all three have pitched well recently, this is not a fool’s hope. But given that the three of them have combined for as many postseason starts as you and I have, it’s not an ironclad hope either.

Then there’s Exhibit C, which concerns Toronto’s offense. It always has been and indeed remains the Blue Jays’ best chance of vanquishing the Rangers and moving on to the American League Championship Series. However, the Game 1 injuries to Donaldson and Bautista do raise a pair of red flags. If they’re not 100 percent going forward, then Toronto’s lineup isn’t 100 percent.

Oh, and there’s also the possibility that Texas ace Cole Hamels could make it two tough days in a row for the Blue Jays offense, as even Toronto manager John Gibbons could admit to MLB.com’s Richard Justice: “We got our work cut out for us with Hamels.”

In a nutshell: doom, doom and more doom.

OK, fine. Not actually. It’s not as if there aren’t any silver linings from Thursday’s game for the Blue Jays. As Mike Axisa of CBS Sports noted, one is that the Blue Jays completely shut down the heart of Texas’ batting order. When you can do that, you’re going to win more games than you’re going to lose.

But while there may not be a sense of doom in the air after Price’s ongoing postseason struggles spoiled the party in Toronto on Thursday, there’s at least a sense of doubt that wasn’t there before. The Blue Jays went into Game 1 with all sorts of momentum and all sorts of good vibes after tearing through the league in August, September and early October, but they got humbled.

As Price well knows, the postseason can certainly do that to a player. And as Toronto was reminded for the first time in over 20 years, it can do it to a whole team too. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Two of the hottest lineups in baseball are slated for a showdown Thursday, as the Toronto Blue Jays host the Texas Rangers in Game 1 of the American League Division Series starting at 3:37 p.m. ET.

The Jays used a consistent attack and a successful trade deadline as fuel to skyrocket themselves to the top of the AL East for the past several months. Toronto accounted for a 48-23 record in the second half. Its offense averaged 5.5 runs per game and led the majors in home runs (232).

The Rangers spent much of the season trailing the Houston Astros in the AL West but also used a strong second half to steal the division in the season’s final weeks. Texas won 46 games in the second half and finished as the third-best offense in the league, averaging 4.6 runs a game.

Each team brought in players at the trade deadline who have had significant impacts. One of those players, David Price (18-5, 2.45 ERA), will toe the rubber for the Jays today. Pitching Game 1 in a playoff series is exactly why Toronto brought him in, and Price will be looking to end his streak of five consecutive postseason losses.

The Rangers will send Yovani Gallardo (13-11, 3.42 ERA) to the mound with the hope of stealing one from Canada’s favorite baseball team. He allowed no runs in 13.2 innings and picked up two wins against the Jays this year.

The Blue Jays won the season series over Texas 4-2, taking three of four in two of those series—one in Toronto and one in Texas. Can the Rangers figure out a way to quiet Toronto’s offense? Can the Jays shut down the Rangers at the plate in front of Toronto’s raucous home crowd? We’ll soon find out. 

Starting Lineups

TEXAS RANGERS

Delino DeShields CF

Shin-Soo Choo RF

Adrian Beltre 3B

Prince Fielder DH

Mike Napoli 1B

Josh Hamilton LF

Elvis Andrus SS

Rougned Odor 2B

Robinson Chirinos C

Yovani Gallardo P

TORONTO BLUE JAYS

Ben Revere LF

Josh Donaldson 3B

Jose Bautista RF

Edwin Encarnacion DH

Troy Tulowitzki SS

Justin Smoak 1B

Russell Martin C

Ryan Goins 2B

Kevin Pillar CF

David Price P

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Normally, one player stands out as the undisputed key to a team’s championship run.

Last year, Madison Bumgarner stepped up and helped lead the San Francisco Giants to a third World Series title in five years.

Before that, David Ortiz launched a monster shot off Joaquin Benoit to help the Boston Red Sox gain momentum, surge past the Detroit Tigers and eventually win a championship.

Can someone put together a similar performance in 2015 and live in postseason lore forever?

Let’s take a look at a critical player for each playoff team.

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Last October gave us one of the most impressive one-man performances in Major League Baseball postseason history. 

Madison Bumgarner made seven appearances for the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 postseason, and they needed every single inning he gave them as they marched to their third World Series title in five years.

Bumgarner had a 1.03 ERA in 52.2 innings, and his five shutout innings in relief in Game 7 of the World Series against the Kansas City Royals was one of the more memorable relief outings of any playoffs in the game’s long history.

Bumgarner is not in this year’s postseason, but that does not mean there are no candidates to put together the kind of month that would rival his. While pitchers are part of the pool, there are also position players in the mix who could carry their clubs the way Carlos Beltran did for the Houston Astros in 2004.

As this postseason gets underway Tuesday, we’ll look at some of the players poised to have that kind of impact. While all of them are entirely capable, the last one listed has the best chance to replicate Bumgarner’s success.

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Small stumbles can be unforgivable offenses when races are so close. 

The slightest advantage this late in the process can be too large to overcome. And if the competition is outpacing everyone else anyway, well then it becomes that man’s race to lose.

That is where David Price sits in the American League Cy Young Award competition this week after another dazzling down-the-stretch performance Monday against the New York Yankees. The Yankees are the team Price’s Toronto Blue Jays are trying to hold off in the AL East title hunt as they attempt to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 1993, when the franchise won its second consecutive World Series.

Against the Yankees, Price threw seven shutout innings, struck out seven and walked one. He allowed just two hits in a dominant performance that was cut short because of the 114 pitches it took him to weave it. He retired the final 14 batters who stepped into the box against him.

Is the AL Cy Young now David Price’s to lose? Leads the league in ERA, 4th in K’s & now 8-1 with #BlueJays – including 4-0 vs the #Yankees

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) September 22, 2015

In four starts against the Yankees as a Blue Jay, Price allowed five earned runs in 26.1 innings (1.71 ERA) and won the decision in three of the four starts—he is 3-1 versus the Yankees, despite the previous tweet. His overall ERA for the year is now an AL-best 2.34.

Toronto manager John Gibbons told reporters, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet:

He’s been unbelievable, really. He’s 8-1 since we acquired him, that’s eight big wins, four times he’s faced these guys, the team we’re competing with right now, that’s not easy to do. What can you say really? That was the whole idea behind getting him. Trades don’t always work out right; this one has worked out right. … He’s [at the] top of the game, really.

While Price, who stands to rake in more than $200 million in free agency this offseason, might be at the top of the league’s starting pitcher heap, there are guys at his level or slightly below trying to pull him down.

The main one is Houston Astros ace Dallas Keuchel, who has earned that ace title over his last two seasons and pitched to a 2.51 ERA, 2.90 FIP and 1.023 WHIP this year. He is also 18-8 with a chance to win 20 games, and even though wins as a stat have been mostly discredited in this era, we still celebrate that milestone as a high level of excellence.

It is also possible that Keuchel’s stumble last week will cost him the Cy Young Award. In a start against the Texas Rangers in the Astros’ most critical series of the season, he lasted just 4.2 innings and was torched for nine runs, six of them in the first inning to sink his team before the Rangers even made three outs.

David Price can become only 2nd pitcher to win Cy Young for season in which he was traded, joining Rick Sutcliffe in ’84. (h/t STATS LLC)

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) September 22, 2015

Keuchel bounced back nicely against the Los Angeles Angels Monday, throwing 7.2 innings and allowing one run, but Price has had no need for such a redeeming outing since the end of April. That is a long-lost memory by now. In a race this close, how these guys throw in their final handful of starts is going to go a long way in voters’ minds, because, as we know, recent memory matters, as does making the playoffs.

There are other candidates in this race, although most of them sit on the fringes. Oakland’s Sonny Gray, Houston’s Scott Kazmir, Tampa Bay’s Chris Archer and Chicago’s Chris Sale all have reasonable cases for being on the ballot, but none of them have the goods to be ahead of Price or Keuchel.

This is now a two-man fight, and the combination of Keuchel’s slip and Price’s latest on-the-money haymaker put Price at the head of the class, a position he’s coveted since he broke in as a reliever with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008.

“He wanted to be the best,” Rays pitching coach Jim Hickey told John Tomase of WEEI.com Tuesday. “He wanted to be the best in the game. He didn’t want to be real good. He didn’t want to be the best on the team. He wanted to be the best pitcher in the game.”

The number of starts could change depending on when teams clinch and how they want to set up the rotations for the postseason, but as things currently stand, Price and Keuchel will each have two more starts before the end of the regular season. Price throws against the Rays twice, and Keuchel gets the Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Based on those opponents’ offensive production in the second half, Price has the tougher task to finish his campaign strongly enough to secure the award. If he handles the Rays twice in the span of five games—he’s made just one start against the Rays this season and allowed five runs in six innings in his final start with the Detroit Tigers—it should be enough to lock up the second Cy Young Award of his stellar career.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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