Aside from any pending waiver claims, the bulk of team-to-team moves are complete. The Blue Jays have already worked their major league trade deadline acquisitions into several games, with Seranthony Domínguez and Louis Varland getting high-leverage innings, Ty France covering first base with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. nursing a hamstring injury a couple of weeks ago, and Shane Bieber putting himself in position for a postseason rotation spot.

Several other teams have done the same thing, but the Blue Jays won’t face all the deadline winners in September. The series against San Diego, Seattle, and Philadelphia have come and gone, so they won’t be seeing them unless they match up in postseason play.

However, this month’s schedule is presenting a “man or mouse” prompt for the Blue Jays, if you will, and most of the teams on the upcoming slate added pieces that were meant to play in these types of games.

As entertaining as it was for Blue Jays fans to watch New York’s bullpen implode the first night after the deadline and watch one of their bullpen acquisitions be sent to triple-A, David Bednar has settled in more and more with the Yankees since the start of August.

In 11 games since being acquired by New York, Bednar has posted a 2.70 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 2.23 FIP, and 20 strikeouts versus five walks. Nine of those outings have been scoreless, and he’s allowed just one ball to leave the park. The Yankees have also given him opportunities to collect more than three outs in an outing, something that was more of a rarity during his tenure with the Pirates.

As it relates to the Blue Jays, Bednar doesn’t have the greatest sample size with this group of Toronto hitters. Only six Blue Jays hitters have faced Bednar, and only two from that group have more than one at-bat against him. However, the Blue Jays have hit Devin Williams and Luke Weaver around this season, tagging them for eight hits and nine earned runs between the two. Those numbers include Alejandro Kirk’s clutch two-run double back in April, as well as George Springer’s grand slam on Canada Day.

Bednar gives the Yankees another option during high-leverage or late-game scenarios, and he should definitely see the mound during this weekend’s tilt between these two contenders.

To Houston’s credit, they haven’t let injuries derail their season. They’ve been in first place since June 3rd, and they built a strong enough division lead to withstand a 25-28 record over July and August, as well as Seattle’s post-deadline push.

Jesús Sánchez and Ramón Urías were solid additions to Houston’s batting order that could also earn more of a spotlight in this article, but their biggest addition was reuniting with Carlos Correa. The 30-year-old spent the first eight years of his career with the Astros playing nothing but shortstop, but since the trade, the Astros have been playing him at third base. In 30 games with the Astros, Correa is slashing .288/.349/.398 with three homers, 14 RBIs, and four doubles.

Given that he is an 11-year vet, Correa has accumulated adequate sample sizes against many starting pitchers in this league, and Toronto’s staff consists of no exceptions. Assuming Eric Lauer is still a bullpen arm, Correa has posted a .289 average and five extra-base hits in 76 at-bats against all five of Toronto’s starters, with the sample size spread out relatively even across them all.

Correa also has a career 1.150 OPS with four homers, 17 RBIs, and six doubles in 14 career games at Rogers Centre, which is where the Blue Jays and Astros will be squaring off next week.

I didn’t think this would be the name I’d be including on this list, but Adrian Houser has earned it.

Houser signed a one-year deal with the White Sox after being released by the Rangers organization back in May, and he would make his first start with Chicago on the same day. After tossing six scoreless innings against Seattle in that start, it set the tone for how well his White Sox tenure would go.

Houser made 11 starts with the White Sox, posting a 2.10 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, and 6.2 K/9 over 68 2/3 total innings. He was acquired by the Rays from the White Sox for infielder Curtis Mead and a pair of pitching prospects on the final day before the trade deadline. Since the deal, his numbers have taken a dip, already allowing one more home run and two more earned runs in six starts with the Rays than he did in Chicago.

Part of Houser’s success in Chicago can be attributed to the numbers he put up in two starts against the Blue Jays this season. While the Blue Jays have turned the page on the offensive side of the ball since last year, they weren’t able to get many runs against the veteran right-hander in those starts. Getting on base hasn’t been the problem; in 13 1/3 innings, the Blue Jays have 14 hits and 5 walks against him. Toronto was only able to scratch across three earned runs, however, including a 3-for-16 clip with runners in scoring position with him on the mound.

The Blue Jays play the Rays seven times in September, and while pitching plans can change easily, that many games against one team certainly raises the odds of Houser getting the Blue Jays at least once. The Rays are still hanging around in the Wild Card race, entering Thursday just 3.5 games back of the final spot. If they’re still in contention come mid-September, they may position their rotation for Houser to face the Blue Jays.

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