RealGM

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Over the last five years, they've won more games than the Giants. Over the last nine years, they've won more games than the Tigers. If you ride the time machine all the way back to 1998, they're one of 16 teams with a winning record.

But what's the difference between the Toronto Blue Jays and the other 15 teams on that list? All those other 15 teams have played at least one postseason game since 1998.

And the Blue Jays? They've played zero.

So what happened Friday in the ever-changing sport of baseball transformed their world. We could pick out quite a few teams that should be throwing a party to celebrate the addition of a second wild-card team in each league. But …

If you're looking for a franchise whose hopes of playing in October just took an especially dramatic turn upward, the Blue Jays might be Exhibit A.

They've been building toward this moment in time anyway, constructing a team and a system designed for long-term contention. So they already qualified as the most talented team in baseball that no one south of the border ever seems to mention.

But now that the postseason field has expanded by 25 percent?

"Our mindset here," says manager John Farrell, "is, whether they added a wild card or not, we feel we're ready to make that next step."

It isn't easy taking that next step in the AL East, just in case you hadn't noticed. When you play in the same division as the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays, it takes more than a talent infusion to start moving up in the standings. It practically takes a solid rocket booster.

It's incredible, in fact, how often people around the game begin conversations about the Blue Jays with the words: "If they played in any other division … " And that's more than just talk. That's the truth.

Over the last five seasons, if you wiped all games within the division off their permanent record, the Blue Jays would have a .531 winning percentage (239-211). That would rank seventh among all teams in the sport. And the only teams outside the AL East that would rank ahead of them are the Phillies (.584), Angels (.564) and Cardinals (.532).