TORONTO — There’s an old roster-building adage in baseball that the six-month season is distinctly divided into three stages.

Two months to evaluate.

Two months to fix.

Two months to peak.

Give things ample time and a generous sample size at the outset, take the two months leading into trade deadline to rectify weaknesses, and then set the stage for teams to put it all together on the field in August and September.

The trick inherent within that philosophy is not sinking so far in the standings through the first third of the season that fixing what ails you come June and July becomes moot.

Sitting one game under .500 after a series with the Vegas-via-Sacramento-bound Oakland A’s, it’s debatable where the Toronto Blue Jays fall on the scale of contender or pretender at this point in the season.

The eye test hasn’t allowed for much confidence, but the spot in the standings actually isn’t all that bad.

Sure, the AL East is out of reach, but the three wild-card format — designed to do exactly this — allows teams in the murky middle of contention to dream of catching fire when it matters.

While the ceiling of GM Ross Atkins’ club is up for debate, what’s not is that the Jays have exited the evaluation stage and firmly entered fix-it mode.

Gone is Cavan Biggio, whose defensive versatility and last name couldn’t overcome a long track record of little to no offensive impact.

The Jays now have........

© TSN