Blue Jays vs. Tigers: Toronto embarks on road trip with potential trade deadline implications 

The Toronto Blue Jays continued their recent domination of the New York Yankees by taking two of three from their division rivals this week with a hard-fought win on Wednesday night to build a four-game lead in the American League East. In doing so, Toronto had secured the season-series win over the Yankees despite having three games left to go between the two juggernauts in September.

The Blue Jays will now head on the road to embark on a four-game series with the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. That will be promptly followed by a matchup against the AL East basement-dwelling Baltimore Orioles next week to lead up to the trade deadline.

This road trip could have huge trade deadline implications for Toronto. By playing the AL Central-leading Tigers, the Jays can gauge how their roster stacks up against one of their potential foes in the postseason this year. Any deficiencies that they end up discovering in the series, whether it be their offense, defense or pitching, they will have the opportunity to quickly address those issues with the trade deadline upcoming next week. Not to mention that the Jays could potentially find some of those solutions when they face the Orioles the very next series.

Blue Jays vs. Tigers: Toronto embarks on road trip with potential trade deadline implications 

Toronto may have found the right moment to face Detroit as the Tigers have been mired in a slump as of late. Detroit is coming off a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates and have lost nine of their past ten games, but they still hold a massive eight game advantage over the second-place Cleveland Guardians. 

Nevertheless, with the Jays winning five of their past six games, they can take full advantage of the Tigers and officially solidify their status as the top AL team in the league. More significantly, Toronto had been massive ace killers in recent days, having won games against Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Carlos Rodon and Max Fried, who all also happened to be All-Stars this year.

So with the likes of Tarik Skubal and Reese Olson set to face the Jays in the upcoming series, let’s just say Toronto should be ready to take on any of them.

For the starting pitching lineup, the Blue Jays will have surprising pitching stalwart Eric Lauer (5-2, 2.80 ERA) lead the charge, followed by José Berríos (6-4, 3.87 ERA), Kevin Gausman (7-7, 4.01 ERA) and Max Scherzer (1-0, 5.14 ERA).

The Tigers will have their top arms thrown the Jays’ way, starting with Reese Olson (4-3, 2.71 ERA) on Thursday, then succeeded by Keider Montero (4-2, 4.28 ERA), Tarik Skubal (10-3, 2.19 ERA) and Jack Flaherty (5-10, 4.77 ERA).

But perhaps with the way this entire Jays team has been playing for the past couple of months even without some of their key players in Anthony Santander, Daulton Varsho and Yimi García due to injuries, they might not need as much reinforcements from the trade deadline as one would expect. This upcoming series against the Tigers should give them a clearer picture of where they stand as a result.