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The Toronto Blue Jays are trying their best to snatch the momentum back from the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series’ critical Game 4 in Toronto on Tuesday afternoon.

The Royals took a stranglehold of the series by taking care of business at home but allowed the Blue Jays to get back in it in Game 3. Toronto’s bats exploded in their return home after cooling off in Kansas City, knocking home 11 runs to cut the series deficit to 2-1.

If the Blue Jays want to leave their final homestand of the series all tied up, taking care of business in Tuesday’s Game 4 will be a must. Let’s take a look at what to know for the game, as well as a prediction.

Game 4: Royals at Blue Jays

Date/Time (ET): Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 4 p.m. ET

TV: Fox Sports 1

Live Stream: Fox Sports Go

Game 4 Preview and Prediction

Maybe a return home was just what the Blue Jays needed.

The offense went cold in Kansas City to start the ALCS, and to the Royals’ credit, much of that had to do with their shutdown pitching, which paved the way to wins in Games 1 and 2. But Monday night’s Game 3 painted a different picture, thanks to the dependable Toronto bats.

Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and Ryan Goins each jacked a home run Monday to put the Royals away in a high-scoring 11-8 affair that saw both lineups catch fire. But in the end, Toronto simply put up too much to match.

“We desperately needed that breakout,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told Gregor Chisholm and Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. “You look at how the game finished up, those runs really came in handy. It wasn’t an easy game, even though we had a big lead.”

While the Blue Jays overcame an 0-2 series deficit in the last round against the Texas Rangers, the Royals give Toronto extra reason for concern. However, Toronto is beginning to find its stride in the middle of the series once again.

Fox Sports Live showed the contrast between Games 1 and 2 compared to the rest of the postseason:

If the Royals are going to stymie the suddenly hot Blue Jays bats, their pitching will have to come from someone making his postseason debut—at least in a starting role. Chris Young gets the ball for Game 4 on the heels of some great late-season starts.

Toronto will have to slow down the Kansas City bats that put up eight runs of their own in Game 3. R.A. Dickey gets that responsibility. His knuckleball style and off-speed stuff should be able to fluster Kansas City’s opportunistic small-ball mentality.

Meanwhile, Young will have his hands full slowing the Blue Jays in the same fashion. He’ll get jumped on early, and Kansas City will be left picking up the pieces as Toronto evens in the series.

Prediction: Blue Jays 6, Royals 3

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The National League Championship Series has been all about the New York Mets to this point, but the Chicago Cubs aren’t going to let this one get away from them that easily.

While the Mets took care of business at home to grab a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, the Cubs now get a chance to utilize some home cooking as the teams travel to Wrigley Field. Chicago is 2-0 at home this postseason, and fans hoping to see the organization’s first World Series berth since 1945 will certainly be loud.

Game 3 will either give the Cubs a chance to get right back in the series or fall behind a devastating 3-0. This battle won’t necessarily decide the series, but it will be a major turning point in either direction.

Here is a look at what you need to know to help you follow along in this important game.

NLCS Game 3

Where: Wrigley Field, Chicago

When: Tuesday, Oct. 20

Time: 8:07 p.m. ET

TV: TBS

Live Stream: TBS.com

Probable Pitchers: Jacob deGrom (Mets) vs. Kyle Hendricks (Cubs)

The Cubs will hope their offense, which carried them to 97 wins this season, will pick up again at home. Buster Olney of ESPN broke down the numbers, showing the team’s struggles in the past two games compared to earlier in the playoffs:

One of the biggest culprits has been Anthony Rizzo, a legitimate MVP candidate who had 31 home runs and 101 RBI during the regular season. In the playoffs, the first baseman is batting only .167, including just 1-for-6 in the NLCS.

Kyle Schwarber did have one long hit in Game 1, but that was his only hit in eight at-bats to go with four strikeouts. While this is obviously a small sample size, the Cubs do need major improvement from their stars to start winning.

On the plus side, the return to Wrigley Field could do wonders for transforming the offense. The Cubs scored 14 runs in two games at home this postseason, compared to just 13 in five combined games on the road.

The problem is doing it against Jacob deGrom, who is 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA in two starts this postseason. After shutting down the Los Angeles Dodgers for seven scoreless innings in Game 1, he needed to grind his way without his best stuff in Game 5, yet he ended up with six innings of two-run ball.

Marc Carig of Newsday was more impressed by the latter performance:

Fully rested going into Game 3, deGrom should come through with yet another dominant showing.

Meanwhile, Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks couldn’t even get through five innings in his only playoff start this season. While he was better at home throughout the year (3.38 ERA), the young pitcher was wildly inconsistent throughout the season and allowed four or more runs on 10 different occasions.

He could also struggle to contain Daniel Murphy, who has now homered in four games in a row against some of the best pitching in baseball.

“Very rarely do you see somebody get this hot against average pitching,” teammate David Wright said after Sunday’s game, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. “Throw in that it’s Kershaw, Greinke twice each, Lester, Arrieta—I mean, that’s impressive. He’s about as locked in as I’ve seen a hitter, and he’s carried that out now for seven games. That’s quite a feat.”

The rest of the lineup hasn’t quite been as hot, but Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes have had big hits this postseason, and the rest of the lineup is more than capable of coming through in key moments.

Although Chicago has the better offense from top to bottom, it is facing a much tougher matchup in Game 3 and will be limited once again. This game won’t necessarily clinch the series, but the Mets will be in good shape after earning a road win.

Prediction: Mets 5, Cubs 3

Follow Rob Goldberg on Twitter for more year-round sports analysis. 

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Fans of power pitching should avert their eyes from Game 4 of the American League Championship Series between the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays, because the heat at Rogers Centre will be coming from the stands, not the pitching mound.

Among pitchers with at least 120 innings on the season, nobody had a lower average fastball velocity than Toronto’s R.A. Dickey (81.4 mph). His counterpart across the diamond, Kansas City’s Chris Young, wasn’t exactly setting bats ablaze either, with a heater that came in at 86.4 mph on average.

With each team boasting a lineup that’s capable of feasting on slow fastballs, you’d think we’re in for another offensive explosion as we saw in Game 3, when the two clubs combined for 19 runs in Toronto’s 11-8 win.

Delivering on the following keys when Game 4 gets underway at 4:07 p.m. ET Wednesday will go a long way toward determining whether that’s the case—and which team comes out on top in a crucial contest.

Toronto’s “Fab Five” vs. Chris Young’s Slider

Young has relied on a deceptive delivery and four-pitch arsenal more than overpowering stuff to keep batters off balance at the plate over the course of his 11-year career. His slider has long been one of his most trusted options, but he’s never gone to it as often as he has this year, especially down the stretch.

That’s not all that surprising when you look at the results he’s getting. Per Brooks Baseball, the opposition has hit only .167 against the pitch this season, compared to .182 against his changeup and .232 against his four-seam fastball.

It’s a pitch that Royals manager Ned Yost made note of during his press conference announcing the 36-year-old as his choice to start Game 4, and it’s a pitch that Toronto’s “Fab Five”—Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki—has had issues with in the past.

Only Martin has had any sustained success against Young, and as his .367 slugging percentage shows, most of that success came via singles, not extra-base hits. In fact, that “Fab Five” has only mustered four extra-base hits combined—three doubles and a home run—against Young. Ever.

For a team as reliant on extra-base hits for its success as the Blue Jays are—seven of their 11 runs in Game 3 came courtesy of a double or home run—those splits are troubling. If Toronto is going to win Game 4, the heart of its lineup is going to have to figure out how to hit Young—and his slider—quickly.

Royals Must Be Patient at the Plate

While Dickey has a number of pitches in his arsenal, the 2012 NL Cy Young Award winner lives and dies with his knuckleball. Everyone knows that it’s coming—nobody, not even Dickey, knows where it’s going—but when it’s on, it’s a devastating pitch that gives batters fits.

So it comes as no surprise that the pitch was at the center of his strategy for attacking a relentless Royals lineup in Game 4, as he told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith:

This is going to sound paradoxical, but it’s important for me to always be pitching to contact. And that means I need to be relentless throwing strikes with it.

I think it’s important for me to take a shot or two out of the strike zone, but the great thing and the beauty about a knuckleball is that it can be in the strike zone and be just as effective as out of the strike zone, because it moves so chaotically, so late.

No team made contact more consistently than Kansas City did during the regular season. The Royals also struck out less than any other team, while only Miami drew fewer walks.

With Dickey looking to pound the strike zone with a pitch he really has no control of, Kansas City’s batters need to wait for their pitch, something that wasn’t lost on Royals manager Ned Yost.

“We don’t expect him to be flat. We expect him to be tough,” Yost told Nicholson-Smith. “You just really don’t know what it’s going to do from pitch to pitch. You try to see it and hit it.”

Underachieving Players Must Step Up

Both Kansas City and Toronto have gotten this far due to the collective efforts of their respective lineups, and while all of the everyday players on each club have had their moments in the postseason, some have been more consistent than others.

Those are some ugly numbers for some big cogs, especially on Kansas City’s side of the equation, where Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas, despite recording a combined seven RBI through the first three games of the series, have been anything but stellar.

It’s also a list with far too much talent for such mediocre production to continue for long. Game 4 is as good a time as any to see one (or more) of these players start to turn things around.

Whichever club winds up with more production from its underachievers could well be the one that emerges victorious in Game 4.

Unless otherwise noted/linked, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.

Hit me up on Twitter to talk playoff baseball: @RickWeinerBR.

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If you were looking for a closely contested LCS, well, sorry about your luck. The Mets and Royals have each raced out to 2-0 leads in their respective series, sweeping home contests while putting the Cubs and Blue Jays’ backs against the proverbial wall.

It’s a stark change to the competitive LDS, which saw three of the four series go to a deciding fifth game. Although Toronto and Chicago have a chance to flip the script upon their return home, teams ahead 2-0 have gone on to win best-of-seven series 78 percent of the time, per Yahoo Sports. A comeback hasn’t happened in more than a half-decade.

That’s…not promising!

Nevertheless, it’s still worth checking in on both series and assessing the chances of a comeback. 

ALCS: Royals Lead Blue Jays, 2-0

The Royals couldn’t possibly have envisioned the first two games going any better. Despite not having ace Johnny Cueto at their disposal, they’ve held Toronto to just three runs. All of those came in Game 2, when the Blue Jays opened up a 3-0 lead before a disastrous five-run seventh inning flipped the script and gave Kansas City a 2-0 series lead.

“We know that this club is capable of getting on a run and putting together two or three or four wins in a row,” Royals manager Ned Yost said, per Chris Fickett of the Kansas City Star. “You have to keep your guard up.”

The Royals are one win away from setting the record for most consecutive wins in LCS history. They’ve won nine straight dating back to their 1985 World Series run; they won the final three games of that series and swept the Baltimore Orioles in last season’s ALCS.

Even hitting the road, the Royals have to feel good about their chances in Game 3. Cueto is scheduled to start against 24-year-old Marcus Stroman, who appeared in only four games during the regular season and has 30 MLB appearances to his name. Stroman‘s been brilliant since his return from injury, posting a 1.67 ERA in four regular-season starts and giving up five runs in 13 innings during Toronto’s ALDS win over the Rangers.

Still, the resume discrepancy here is pretty large. Cueto‘s been one of baseball’s best pitchers over the last half-decade, a lock to land a nine-figure contract this winter and the Royals’ prized midseason acquisition. He wasn’t up for the task for most of the second half of the regular season but has come back in a big way in October. The Royals won both of Cueto‘s starts in the ALDS against Houston, and he appears to be rounding into mental form.

Toronto will have its fingers crossed that the inconsistent Cueto of the regular season shows up. If he does, the Blue Jays bats can finally awaken and get themselves out to an early lead to calm Stroman‘s nerves. Given the way the first two games went, we’re all better off banking on Cueto‘s experience.

NLCS: Mets Lead Cubs, 2-0

Speaking of dormant bats. The Cubs, who spent the regular season grooming a group of young power hitters for this very moment, have gone quiet. They’re down 2-0 thanks to only scoring three runs through the first two games of the NLCS, only recording a grand total of five hits in each game.

“Our guys are fine,” manager Joe Maddon said, per Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune. “They pitched well and they beat us. We only scored three runs in the two games. That’s hard to win. But we have so much offensive talent and I believe in our guys.”

Putting it mildly: The pitching matchup for Game 3 does not favor Maddon‘s faith. The Cubs, having already watched aces Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta go down, will start Kyle Hendricks. The 25-year-old went 8-7 with a 3.95 ERA during the regular season but lasted only 4.2 innings in his postseason debut against St. Louis.

He’ll go up against Jacob DeGrom, who has been mowing fools down all season. DeGrom took Games 1 and 5 against the Dodgers, besting Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke in the same series. An outside Cy Young contender for most of the regular season, DeGrom‘s now in a position to all but clinch a World Series berth for a Mets team no one expected to be here in April.

“When you’re throwing that hard and hitting your spots, there’s not a lot you can do,” Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said, per Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com. “It’s the way it’s going for them right now. Maybe the day off will cool them off.”

There’s not much to indicate things are going to change anytime soon, either. DeGrom vs. Hendricks is a massive advantage for New York. Getting to 3-0 would be as close to a mortal lock in the Mets’ favor as possible, though the presence of Theo Epstein and other former members of the Boston Red Sox brass will keep some hope alive in Chicago.

Basically, everything hinges on Game 3. The Mets have an ace. The Cubs have a perfectly fine rotation arm. There have been bigger upsets in the past, but the Amazins are probably heading to the World Series.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter

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The New York Mets are two wins away from the World Series after beating the Chicago Cubs 4-1 Sunday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series. 

Mets starter Noah Syndergaard continued the trend of sublime starting pitching for the Mets with one earned run and nine strikeouts over five and two-thirds innings. The previously unhittable Jake Arrieta took the loss for the Cubs after giving up four runs in five innings.

For those keeping score, the Mets have now gone through Arrieta, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke this postseason. Those are only the expected top three finishers for the NL Cy Young Award this year. That has to give their hitters confidence going forward.

While the Mets are riding high after their strong showing in Queens, they will have their work cut out for them as the series shifts to Wrigley Field. Here’s a look at the schedule for the rest of the series along with where you can find each game on TV. 

*If necessary.

Now that you know when to tune in for the rest of the series, let’s have a look at how the rest of the NLCS could play out. Here’s a few predictions as the series migrates to Chicago.

Mets Will Put Cubs on the Ropes

Already up two games, the Mets have the luxury of sending their ace to the hill in Game 3. Jacob deGrom will take the mound for the Mets against Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs.

So far this postseason, deGrom and his flowing locks have shut opposing lineups down. He went 2-0 in the NLDS with a 1.38 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 13 innings. As ESPN Stats and Info and Mark Simon of ESPN point out, deGrom‘s division series performance was one for the ages:

Simply put, deGrom has been feeling it for the entire postseason. It’s hard to pick against him at this point, so look for him to usher the Mets to within one win of the World Series.

Cubs Will Make Things Interesting

Despite the tall order of facing deGrom, which we already predicted will turn into a loss for the Cubs, we expect the North Siders to get back into the series at home. 

Steven Matz is scheduled to start Game 4 for the Mets after a tough outing against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS. The 24-year-old Matz is a rookie and could falter on the road in front of a hostile crowd. 

If Kyle Schwarber, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo can get things on track against Matz, it can help them stay in a groove as the series wears on. For the Cubs to have any chance, those three players will need to carry the lineup. 

Returning home to face a rookie pitcher is as good a way as any to find your rhythm at the plate. Look for the middle of the Cubs order to get it going and help the Cubs get back into the series.

Mets Ultimately Win, an Unexpected Player Gets LCS MVP Consideration

Even if the Cubs are able to get back into the series at home, the Mets starting pitching is just too strong and should carry them to the World Series.

If deGrom again dazzles in Game 3 and pitches well in a potential start later in the series, he would have a compelling case to be named Most Valuable Player of the series. If Daniel Murphy continues hitting the cover off the ball (a homer in four straight games), he also could lay claim to the series MVP award.

However, if the Mets do indeed move on, a name to keep an eye on is Jeurys Familia. The Mets closer has saved each of the first two games without allowing a run and has only given up two hits in two and one-third innings.

Familia has shut down the opposition for the entire postseason, and he looked confident in his two outings against the Cubs. If Familia gets the save in two more Mets wins and remains dominant, he would have as good an MVP case as anyone. Either way, the Mets will be in good hands if they can hand the ball to Familia with a lead.

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The Kansas City Royals have opened a 2-0 series lead in the American League Championship Series over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Royals protected their home field at Kauffman Stadium with a 5-0 win in Game 1 and a 6-3 victory in Game 2.  

The series is far from over, though, especially as it shifts to Rogers Centre for (potentially) three games in the Great White North. Here’s a look at the schedule for the rest of the series as well as where you can find coverage of each game.

*if necessary

According to the Blue Jays’ website, Marcus Stroman is scheduled to start Game 3 for the Jays against Johnny Cueto of the Royals. Stroman will have to continue his solid postseason performance against Cueto, who has been one of the best playoff starters for Kansas City.

Cueto is 1-0 in the postseason with a 3.86 ERA, 13 strikeouts and a 0.86 WHIP in 14 innings. In 13 playoff innings, Stroman has yet to get a decision but has a respectable 3.46 ERA and nine strikeouts. 

Despite being down 2-0, the Blue Jays are favored at home in Game 3. At the time of this writing, Odds Shark had Toronto as -165 favorites, but 63 percent of the bets have been on Kansas City at +159.

It’s easy to see why bettors are backing the Royals. Their bullpen has been dominant against the Blue Jays, and as Fox Sports 1 points out, if the Royals starter exits with a lead, it’s pretty much a wrap.

For the Blue Jays to get back into the series, they will need assistance from the heart of their batting order. Josh Donaldson will have to return to his MVP-candidate ways of the regular season. In the playoffs, Donaldson is 6-for-26 with six strikeouts. 

However, he hasn’t no-showed the ALCS as much as Jose Bautista. Since the bat flip heard ’round the world, Joey Bats is hitless in the championship series with two strikeouts. The Blue Jays have their hands full, especially when they face the Royals bullpen, so they will need their big guns to get it going to have any chance.

However, if Cueto turns in another strong performance and keeps it close as he gives way to Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis, it will give the Royals a great chance to take a 3-0 stranglehold on this series.

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Facing an unfavorable 2-0 deficit against the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series, the Toronto Blue Jays return home Monday. But they’ve already been in this position in the 2015 postseason.  

Toronto became the seventh team in MLB history to overcome a 2-0 deficit in a division series after churning out three consecutive wins over the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series. As right fielder Jose Bautista indicated to MLB.com’s Richard Justice, last week’s comeback has instilled confidence in the team.

“We’ve been in the same situation before,” Bautista said. “We have a little bit of experience being down 0-2. It’s not the most comfortable place to be, but we’re still confident.”

But the Royals present a tall task. Their 29-year playoff drought, quenched in 2014, is so last year. They’ve since rattled off an 11-6 postseason record and embodied resilience in a back-and-forth, five-game ALDS victory over the Houston Astros.

Kansas City plays with confidence, as it should, per MLB GIFs:

The ALCS winner will face a formidable foe in either the Chicago Cubs or New York Mets, who both boast brawny lineups that are chock-full of power in addition to solid pitching. 

Though youth might be perceived as a weakness for the Cubs and Mets—their position-player starters are 24.8 and 28.6 years old on average, respectively—it might be their hidden strength, as Chris Cwik of Yahoo Sports noted:

The common thought was that both of these teams were still a year or two away from actual contention. A large part of that has to do with both clubs depending on young players. It’s always risky to bet on prospects. Some take years to make an impact, others never develop and a smaller portion are superstars immediately. 

Both the Cubs and Mets feature more of the latter.

The Blue Jays are in the postseason for the first time since 1993, but they have plenty of veteran leadership with October experience. And the Royals, of course, were a win away from the title last year. Either way, the World Series is shaping up to be a young-versus-experienced matchup.

With the World Series just over a week away, here is a look at the remaining ALCS schedule:

Predictions

The Blue Jays have a chance to exact revenge on a grudge that is 30 years in the making.

Toronto met Kansas City for the AL crown in 1985, with the Blue Jays winning the first two games at home before an epic collapse that pushed the Royals to the World Series—and eventually their first and only major league title.

Shi Davidi of Sportsnet wrote the following: “Such eliminations don’t happen very often, and they leave an enduring heartache.”

History indicates the odds aren’t in the Blue Jays’ favor—only three of 25 teams have come back from 2-0 deficits in LCS history. In fact, they have only a 19.9 percent chance of winning the series, per FanGraphs. But given the Blue Jays’ proven perseverance, unforgiving lineup and highly capable rotation, they’re still the team to beat.

They return to the hitter-friendly Rogers Centre, where they smacked 123 home runs and scored 450 runs in the regular season, a league high. But their pitching has been a hidden gem at home as well. 

The Blue Jays’ respective starters for Games 3 and 4, Marcus Stroman and R.A. Dickey, have found a haven within their home confines. Mike Petriello of MLB.com took a closer look at the pair’s stats:

Dickey, home: .208 BABIP
Dickey, road: .307 BABIP

Stroman, home: .264 BABIP
Stroman, road: .342 BABIP

That’s measuring “Batting Average on Balls in Play,” which is just a fancy way of asking how often a batted ball finds its way into a fielder’s glove for an out, and the differences are enormous, especially when it’s noted that the MLB average was .296.

Their balanced attack is why the Blue Jays will not only win the ALCS but also go on to top whichever team emerges from the National League—likely the Mets, given that they’ve shown they can halt the Cubs.

Chicago’s power is as good as any other team’s, but its lineup strikes out often—a league-high 1,518 times in the regular season. The Mets’ loaded rotation of Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom will present an insurmountable challenge.

The Cubs and Mets have been two of the best stories of 2015 and will both be October regulars among this new and exciting generation of baseball. The Cubs have locked up most of their impact players through 2019, and it doesn’t look as though the Mets intend to break up what could develop into MLB’s best rotation. 

But this has been, and will continue to be, Toronto’s year. 

The Blue Jays stumbled in the second half of 2014 and blew a seven-game lead in the AL East, which prompted general manager Alex Anthopoulos to push all his chips to the middle this year, making trade-deadline deals that hauled in superstars David Price and Troy Tulowitzki, neither of whom the team will be able to afford in the long term. 

Talent, experience, leadership and will are intangibles that permeate within the veteran Blue Jays clubhouse and are why Toronto will win the title.

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With Game 3 of the American League Championship Series looming against the Kansas City Royals, the Toronto Blue Jays got a vote of confidence from an unexpected source.

While working as a MLB analyst on Fox, Alex Rodriguez warned it’s much too soon to count out the Jays.

“Anyone who writes them off, I think they’re making a mistake,” Rodriguez said. “Trust me, I played against these guys just a few weeks ago. They have power, they have great pitching and they’re going up to Toronto. They’re relentless up there and almost impossible to beat at home.”

Relentless, indeed. The Jays’ 53-28 record at Rogers Centre tied for the best mark in the AL during the regular season.

With Marcus Stroman set to face off against Johnny Cueto, these are the biggest keys as Toronto attempts to jump-start a comeback and the Royals try to move within a win of a return trip to the World Series.

Begin Slideshow

Last winter, there were a number of clear-cut trade candidates even before the MLB offseason got underway, with Cole Hamels and Justin Upton leading that list. This year, there is not an obvious star-caliber player who is expected to be on the move, with perhaps the lone exception being Cincinnati Reds closer Aroldis Chapman.

But does that mean there won’t be blockbuster deals? Absolutely not.

With Billy Beane calling the shots, it’s not unfathomable to think the Oakland A’s could shop Sonny Gray, while the San Diego Padres may need to take a step back and look to trade one or more of their starters from the trio of Tyson Ross, James Shields and Andrew Cashner.

Depending on how far the Reds and Milwaukee Brewers dive into their respective rebuilds, guys like Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips, Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy could also be dangled. The Colorado Rockies could also sell further by moving Carlos Gonzalez.

That then raises the question, which teams have the prospect talent and clear areas of need to be in the market for a blockbuster trade this winter?

By my account, all but six teams have the prospects to pull off a blockbuster trade this offseason if they so desired.

The Seattle Mariners, Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Angels, Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres are the clubs that don’t appear to have the necessary top-end talent or depth to make a huge splash via trade.

However, that doesn’t mean the other 24 teams will all be ready to sell the farm.

Teams like the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and Brewers have built up good farm system depth in recent years, but as rebuilding clubs, there is no reason to think they’ll mortgage any of that young talent at this point.

Then you have the small-market teams that rely on cheap, homegrown talent to be competitive. Teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians have a wealth of talent down on the farm, but their organizational philosophies will likely prevent any blockbuster deals.

So, with all of that taken into account, here is a look at three teams with the prospects and the clear areas of need to pull off an offseason blockbuster trade.

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The Kansas City Royals are at it again.

Looking intent on winning the American League for the second straight year, the Royals have taken both Games 1 and 2 of the ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays. The October magic they mustered up a year ago is making a return and could propel them to another World Series appearance.

As the best-of-seven series shifts north of the border for three games, however, anything can happen with the series still relatively young and a supremely talented Blue Jays squad on the ropes. Here’s a look at everything to know for Game 3 and beyond.

ALCS Schedule (Royals Lead 2-0)

World Series Odds

Odds courtesy of Odds Shark.

Perhaps David Price has earned some of his subpar reputation when it comes to playoff struggles. But it’s hard to come away from Game 2 and think he’s the Blue Jays’ problem in this series.

Yes, Price eventually got burned in a five-run seventh inning that allowed the Royals to take a stranglehold over the ALCS. Yes, his postseason career record slipped even further. But without an outfield error that started that seventh-inning run, Price may have pitched a complete-game shutout.

Price was about to retire his 19th straight batter before that error, but instead his outing will be remembered like this, as ESPN Stats & Info noted:

While losing in the playoffs is nothing new for Price, it’s also not new for these Royals to turn it on when the odds are against them.

They did it twice in the ALDS, battling back from multiple-run deficits to win games. One of them came in Game 4 at Houston, trailing by four runs only to win and extend the series—eventually taking Game 5 and advancing.

They were in a similar hole Saturday, yet they didn’t blink and came through again, as MLB noted:

Behind the heady offensive play of Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and more, the Royals have found their small-ball formula for success, just like they did in last year’s postseason. Add onto that an 11-game hitting streak from Lorenzo Cain and pitching that hasn’t lost a beat, and you have yourself a team proving it can run the table.

Kansas City may not have the firepower offensively that Toronto can boast, and we don’t know how that will translate when the series shifts to the Blue Jays’ ballpark. But it looks increasingly likely that the Royals will be able to execute on what they’re trying to do, and if that’s the case, the World Series has their name on it. 

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