The Toronto Blue Jays entered the 2025 All-Star break fresh off the heels of one of the hottest stretches in all of Major League Baseball this season.

After overcoming a sluggish start to the new campaign, the Blue Jays have played to a 39-20 record since May 8, the best mark in baseball. A 10-game win streak, highlighted by a four-game sweep over their division rival New York Yankees, has propelled the team up the standings and into first place in the American League East at the unofficial halfway point of the year.

Their success in the first half of the season has put the team in a position to explore adding to the current roster by way of the trade market for a playoff push, and maybe even a potential pennant race.

In 2024, the Blue Jays traded away names like Yimi Garcia, Nate Pearson, Danny Jansen, Justin Turner, Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, and Yusei Kikuchi at the deadline, recouping value on expiring deals for a team that was not involved in the playoff picture.

This time around, however, the team appears to be fully entrenched as buyers with under a month remaining before the July 31 trade deadline.

Keegan Matheson of MLB.com joined SportsCentre on Monday and discussed which players could be a good fit for Toronto to pursue as the team chases its first division title since 2015.

“[The Blue Jays] have enough depth, they do not need to raise their floor,” Matheson said. “They have raised their floor a ton, year after year after year. They need to raise their ceiling.

“So, when you look in the rotation for example, you can look at Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly. You can look at [Edward] Cabrera with the [Miami] Marlins. But this doesn’t get fun unless you’re talking about a Seth Lugo or, really big, Jacob deGrom. Raising that ceiling."

Gallen and Kelly helped the Arizona Diamondbacks make the World Series in 2023, combining for 57.2 innings pitched across 10 starts during their run to the Fall Classic. The pair could make for interesting additions to the rotation with recent Postseason experience and success under their belts.

Cabrera is on track for his best season since 2022 with a 3.61 ERA, 1.263 WHIP and a career-low 3.3 walks per nine innings. However, the hard-throwing right-hander has never logged more than 100 innings pitched at the Major League level and has already thrown 82.1 innings pitched through 16 starts this season.

Lugo, last year's Cy Young runner-up in the American League, has enjoyed another solid season with a 2.67 ERA in his second season with the Kansas City Royals. The long-reliever turned starter holds a 87.9 per cent left on-base percentage this season, the highest mark in the big leagues, and holds a player option for 2026.

deGrom has rebounded nicely from back-to-back injury-riddled seasons and is in the midst of another ace-like season for the Texas Rangers. The two-time National League Cy Young winner has pitched to a 9-2 record with a 2.32 ERA and 113 strikeouts over 112.1 innings, ranking inside the 10 for fWAR among pitchers in the junior circuit.

But with just 94.1 innings pitched across the past two seasons while recovering from a second Tommy John surgery, deGrom’s arm health is a question mark even with his elite production this year. He is also owed $38 and $37 million over the next two seasons, a contract that might be too rich for management to take on with a number of important players like Bo Bichette, Kevin Gausman, George Springer, and others set to have their deals expire within the next two seasons.

“Any pitcher the Blue Jays add, there’s one question I care about,” Matheson added. “And that is will they pitch the first three games of a playoff series? You’re not looking for someone to pitch Game 5 when everybody else is gassed. You’re looking for somebody who can change a series.”