As the 2024 post-season begins Tuesday, the Toronto Blue Jays fully intend to be among the six American League teams who make the playoffs in ’25. But they have plenty of work to accomplish to turn that fantasy into a reality in the months ahead.

If this season taught us anything, it’s that the Blue Jays have a long way to go after finishing 74-88. There are many areas to address. They desperately have to improve an offence that placed 23rd in runs per game (4.14) and 26th in home runs (156). And let’s not forget about that historically horrific bullpen, which was worth an MLB-worst minus-2.5 fWAR.

The starting rotation will need a little attention, too. While the franchise appears set with a quartet of Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Bowden Francis, management must locate a viable back-end starter to compete alongside Yariel Rodríguez and Jake Bloss for the fifth starter’s spot next spring.

No problem, right? It’s clear this team isn’t close to being considered a legitimate playoff contender as currently constructed, and rightly so. For that to change, they require a perfectly executed off-season on several different fronts if their season is to remain alive around this time next year.

Success like that isn’t easy to acquire, and that’s why much of the fan base remains unconvinced about the Blue Jays realistically returning to the post-season in 2025. Most of that skepticism is justified. However, there appear to be a small handful of realistic paths that may allow for a return to contention.

The Blue Jays had very few bounces fall their way in free agency last winter, leaving them with Rodríguez as their lone impact signing after coming away with Justin Turner, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Kevin Kiermaier on the position-player front — all of whom were dealt at this summer’s trade deadline.

Complementary hitters like that won’t cut it this time. Amidst a franchise-defining off-season, the front office badly needs to make a splash or two, particularly when it pertains to locating some much-needed offensive middle-of-the-order support for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Of course, impending free agent Juan Soto will be the big-ticket item that all 30 clubs will have atop their off-season wish list. But Toronto has lived this story before. They heavily pursued Shohei Ohtani last winter before he inked a record-breaking 10-year, $700-million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and chances are it’ll be almost impossible to pry the superstar outfielder out of New York.

Assuming that avenue is off the table, general manager Ross Atkins will have to look elsewhere to find some offensive firepower. The good news is another tier of impact thumpers should be available on the open market — and at multiple positions, too.

After Soto, the next crop of notable hitters is slated to include Pete Alonso and Christian Walker at first base, Alex Bregman, Willy Adames and potentially Eugenio Suárez (club option) on the left side of the infield, Canadian Tyler O’Neill, old friend Teoscar Hernández and possibly Cody Bellinger (player option) in the outfield and Anthony Santander at DH.

If the Blue Jays end up with one of those bats — or even two, perhaps — they’d be headed in the right direction to correcting a power deficiency that’s plagued this offence over the last two seasons.

But Toronto needs to add more than just home runs in free agency. It also must hit it out of the park in the reliever market while searching for multiple high-leverage arms. Those won’t come cheap, though. To this point, the current regime has shied away from committing substantial resources to a position that includes such a high level of volatility — a trend they’ll likely have to break this winter.

Previously, the biggest commitment to a free-agent reliever during the Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins era has been Yimi García’s two-year, $11-million contract that included a third-year club option. He, of course, is someone they could attempt to reacquire.

Still, if the Blue Jays plan to dramatically upgrade the bullpen with one of the top relief arms available — such as Tanner Scott or Carlos Estévez — it’ll require a significant investment in both dollars and length of contract.

In a perfect world, the Blue Jays would probably prefer to conduct most of their roster construction via free agency, especially considering the organization’s projected CBT payroll (competitive balance tax) for next season sits at approximately $138.1 million (pre-arbitration calculations), according to FanGraphs.

But, the reality is they can’t solve all their problems with money, even with as much financial flexibility as they possess. Augmenting their roster with trades will be necessary, too.

That could ultimately lead them to Oakland’s Brent Rooker, a power-hitting DH-type who blasted a career-high 39 home runs this past season and will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this fall, likely making him expendable to the so-called money-poor A’s. In that scenario, Spencer Horwitz would likely headline a package of prospects sent in return.

Canvassing trade routes could also provide Toronto’s front office with an alternative to bidding on high-priced relievers in free agency, at least to some extent. There’ll probably be at least a few high-profile back-end arms available. Take the St. Louis Cardinals, for instance. They’re reportedly looking to shed payroll this off-season, so could they be swayed into moving closer Ryan Helsley, who’s entering his final year of arbitration?

The Blue Jays’ farm system doesn’t have much blue-chip talent to offer. But what it does feature is several big-league-ready position players who may not have a spot on next year’s team, namely Addison Barger, Leo Jiménez (who’ll be out of options) and Horwitz. There are others with intriguing upside at triple-A that appear to be blocked by the major league crop as well, including outfielders Alan Roden and Will Robertson and infielder Damiano Palmegiani.

At the moment, there are more big-league candidates than spots available on Toronto’s 26-man roster. Since they have many holes to fill, it’ll be imperative to use some of that depth to add value elsewhere with impact, cost-effective players rather than doing so in free agency.

Last winter, the Blue Jays doubled down on internal offensive improvements after missing out on Ohtani in free agency, which, outside of Guerrero and Daulton Varsho to a lesser degree, played out horribly. So, what’s to suggest next season will be any different?

The problem this team ran into in 2024 is they hedged their bets on core hitters like George Springer, Bo Bichette, Alejandro Kirk, Varsho and Guerrero, experiencing positive regressions. More or less, that would determine the success of this year’s offence, and, well, it did just that — except the impact was mostly negative.

Guerrero is back to being an MVP-calibre performer, and Varsho, assuming he’s healthy in ’25, figures to be the streaky power hitter he was this season. But those two can’t carry the offence alone. They need more help. Some of that has to come from external additions to alleviate the immense pressure this core faced over the past six months. But there’s also a major X-factor here: Bichette.

Toronto needs to exhaust every resource possible to ensure Bichette bounces back from the worst performance of his career, where he slashed .225/.277/.322 and posted a 71 wRC+ (100 league average) while limited to half a season because of repeated calf injuries and a fractured middle finger.

As for Kirk, who excelled to a .288/.349/.418 slash line and 121 wRC+ post-Danny Jansen trade, the key will be finding him a viable partner — someone with more dependable availability, perhaps — to share catching duties at likely a 60/40 clip. The bigger concern, however, lies with Springer.

He struggled mightily outside a ridiculous 22-game stretch, which was, by far, the hottest 22-game window of his Blue Jays career, resulting in a .802 SLG in that span. But the 35-year-old outfielder — who has two years left on his $150-million contract — still finished as a below-average hitter, earning a 95 wRC+.

Springer’s time as an everyday player, in essence, may be behind him — even if the organization isn’t ready to accept that notion. At the very least, though, they need to put him in better positions to succeed, which likely starts with deploying him lower in the batting order.

There was no better player development success story for Toronto this season than Francis’ return to the starting rotation, displaying an incredible effort of perseverance and tenacity that has him slotted into a spot on next year’s staff.

The only problem is there weren’t more stories like that yet again.

It was Davis Schneider in 2023, then Francis this past season. For two straight seasons, the Blue Jays have failed to have more than a single internal advancement significantly impact the big-league roster per year. That isn’t the sole reason they missed the playoffs in 2024. But, it hindered their ability to overcome the injuries and underperformances that arose throughout the 162-game campaign.

Addressing that issue isn’t an overnight fix, especially for a bottom-third prospect system. That said, there should be opportunities for youngsters like Will Wagner and, eventually, Orelvis Martinez — a pair of cost-effective, pre-arbitration players — to help in that regard next season.

That’s only the first step, though. It’ll also require organizational changes, which the Blue Jays have already begun, dismissing many of those involved in minor-league player development. And how they acquire talent needs to become a larger focus, too, especially on the pitching front.

One of the more unfortunate aspects of the Blue Jays’ 2024 season is how little they would’ve needed to improve to remain in the AL playoff hunt, with both the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals earning the final two wild-card seeds with only 86 wins. And that’s been a common theme since MLB expanded the post-season field in ’22.

Since introducing a third wild-card position, it hasn’t taken more than 89 wins to make the playoffs in the AL in any of the last three seasons, including ’24. Plus, zero teams in the sport won 100 games for the first time since ’14, and in the AL, all 15 clubs finished with fewer than 95 wins.

The road to October will always be daunting for the Blue Jays as long as they call home to the AL East, which figures to be even more competitive next year, as the Tampa Bay Rays’ pitching gets healthier and the Boston Red Sox’s young crop of prospects being one season closer to reaching the majors. At the same time, though, the rest of the league will likely remain much of the same.

At the top, the cream of the crop will probably include the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians and Houston Astros. Outside of those four, there’s plenty to be decided.

The Royals, headlined by AL MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr., should be part of the conversation. While the Tigers and Mariners could be, as well, both need to invest in offence this winter. Then, there’s the Twins, who fumbled their playoff hopes due to finishing on a dreadful 12-27 stretch after not making any meaningful roster additions all season — enough said.

It’s never wise to dismiss the reigning World Series champions. However, the Rangers have several question marks up and down their roster, namely on the pitching front, with starters Max Scherzer and Nathan Eovaldi (player option) likely free agents this off-season.

There’s ample evidence to suggest the Blue Jays should have a realistic chance of being, at the very least, a wild-card team once again in 2025. That comes with a certain level of risk, as this franchise has witnessed over the last five seasons, going 0-6 across three separate playoff berths in that span.

While competing for a division title should and likely remains the primary goal, getting in and seeing what happens seems attainable as long as Toronto makes the correct moves over the winter.