Are you ready to get hurt again? Congratulations, you’re prepared to experience another Toronto Blue Jays offseason.

The last few winters may have hardened even the most diehard Blue Jays fans. Whether it was how the team crashed and burned during their postseason exits in 2022 and 2023, the failed pursuit of Shohei Ohtani nearly one year ago, or the lack of splashy transactions last offseason. As a Toronto sports fan, you have to be a glutton for punishment to put yourself through this torture year after year. To help make this offseason a little more bearable, here are some things to keep in mind as the Blue Jays look to improve upon their 74-88 record this past season.

This is your offseason survival guide for even the most masochistic and pessimistic Blue Jays fans.

Before signing any free agent or making any splashy trade, the first order of business for the Blue Jays this offseason should be signing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the biggest contract in franchise history. The Blue Jays aren’t under the gun to do so, so there’s no guarantee something gets done this winter, but free agency looms next winter for the first baseman.

Having a franchise player like Vladdy locked down long-term makes it easier to plan for the future and sell would-be free agents to play with Guerrero and company. But there’s a chance we enter 2025 with both Vlad and Bo Bichette playing their swan song seasons with Toronto.

The front office may prefer to wait one more season to see how Guerrero performs, but the risk they run is he has another MVP-esque season and his asking price jumps up even further with the open market calling his name. But if that were the case, that’s a scenario where the Blue Jays should be elated to pay big money for a franchise player.

Ross Atkins has been somewhat downplaying the possibility of a Guerrero contract extension over the last few months. This is either a negotiating tactic or the Blue Jays are unsure whether they want to commit hundreds of millions to Guerrero. It wouldn’t be an abject failure if the Blue Jays cannot get something done with Guerrero this offseason, but time is running out to not only make this team better for the foreseeable future but to sell this fan base on hope for the future.

We’ve already witnessed this, but prepare to see the Blue Jays attached to virtually every free agent and trade target on the market this offseason. For whatever reason, Toronto is always the popular dark horse candidate or mystery team to drum up leverage for free agents.

It’s always been suspected that agents and other teams have used the Blue Jays for leverage, and while that can never be confirmed for certain, always take these reports with a grain of salt.

The Blue Jays will also be interested in players they have no business going after, whether it’s the premiere free agents or for positions where they already have established players. Because the team will never outright refute their interest in a player, expect the Blue Jays to come up a lot in rumours.

This ties in with the last bullet point, but be cognizant of where any reports are coming from and whom they may benefit. The big one is Jon Heyman, who is rumoured to have close ties with MLB super agent, Scott Boras.

Coincidentally, in one of his latest pieces at the New York Post, Heyman names the Blue Jays as a potential landing spot for Juan Soto, who The Boras Corporation represents. Follow the money, and you’ll probably find out why the Blue Jays are connected to said player.

I won’t lambast anyone for falling for the Shohei Ohtani stuff last year, because a legitimate MLB insider like Jon Morosi said Ohtani was on his way to Toronto. Only the biggest pessimists didn’t believe Ohtani was a Blue Jay for that whirlwind afternoon last December.

In retrospect, no other mainstream MLB reporter corroborated Morosi’s report, which should’ve been a red flag. News of this magnitude like that need at least two big names to report a signing or a trade. Jeff Passan is the gold standard, and if he tweets out a transaction, it’s usually 99% done.

Given what happened with the Ohtani sweepstakes last season, some people might not believe a signing is real until the player shows up in a Blue Jays uniform and shakes Atkins’ hand. That’s not a bad strategy to take, as even Carlos Correa “signed” with two teams a few winters ago before landing with the Minnesota Twins.

As we approach the tenth season of Ross Atkins as general manager of the Blue Jays, fans have become familiar with many of his “Ross-isms” by now. GMs don’t read like an open book anymore, but Atkins sometimes is especially coy when he’s asked about absolutes.

A few weeks ago, Akins said the team would need to get “creative” to address the bullpen and then the team sent Génesis Cabrera to free agency. Cabrera wasn’t a bullpen stud by any means, but he was an inexpensive left-handed option for the Blue Jays. Atkins didn’t make it sound like the Jays are going to have to reconstruct the bullpen on the cheap.

During his end-of-season press conference, Atkins also cautioned that the team wants to acquire power, but warned about the downside of potential strikeouts that come with home run hitters. Ross, my man, you have to swing the bat to hit home runs. There is going to be some swing-and-miss in the lineup if you want any hope of improving upon being the 26th team in MLB in total home runs.

Akins also tends to put hit foot in his mouth sometimes, so don’t be shocked if there’s yet another Atkins soundbite that irks the fan base this winter. Consider it your early holiday gift, I guess.