Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Miami Marlins this offseason in the hopes that the players acquired would help lead them to their first postseason berth since 1993.

Those hopes may have taken a severe blow on Friday night.

Toronto Blue Jays sparkplug Jose Reyes is headed to the DL. The All-Star shortstop was carted off the diamond after sustaining an apparent ankle injury when he slid into second base against the Kansas City Royals.

UPDATE: Saturday, April 13 at 9:05 a.m. ET by Tim Daniels

As many of us know, the Toronto Blue Jays have lofty expectations this season. Whether it be from the odds in Vegas to the chatter around the league to the success-starved fans, everyone agrees that the Blue Jays should make the playoffs this season.

With many fair-weather fans joining the fray in Toronto, it would help to give them a little more information about the team, especially regarding the new players on the squad.

The Toronto Blue Jays finally get their much-anticipated season rolling today against the Cleveland Indians. And with that, the scrutiny will begin on whether or not drastically revamping the roster will result in a playoff spot.

Three days.

That's all the time that remains between now and opening day for the Toronto Blue Jays.

And with all the wheeling and dealing that was done this past offseason by GM Alex Anthopoulos, the 2013 edition of the Blue Jays barely looks anything like the 2012 team that took the field day-in, day-out.

With significant changes made to the team's starting rotation, starting infield, starting outfield, as well as bullpen, the Jays are almost a brand new team, ready to compete.

It really depends on who you talk to when the topic is Spring Training.

Many believe that it means nothing. Many believe it can be a sign of things to come.

Many believe that they don't know what to believe.

Spring training to me is completely unique to the player. There are some players who always struggle in spring training only to come out and have a great year. For example, Tim Lincecum has a career 5.59 spring training ERA.

The Toronto Blue Jays have some of the biggest question marks in regard to positional battles. With such an influx of talent, many opening day jobs are up for grabs. But with such a vast amount of assets, it will be tough to sit a very skilled player. As my father would always say, "It is a good problem to have".

So who gets the nod?

Had it not been for a pair blockbuster trades with the Miami Marlins and New York Mets this offseason, the Blue Jays could have possessed five consensus top-100 prospects in Travis d’Arnaud, Aaron Sanchez, Jake Marisnick, Noah Syndergaard and Justin Nicolino.

The Toronto Blue Jays have done a tremendous job remodeling their team into a playoff contender during the offseason.

No. Make that a World Series contender.

I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but the odds makers in Las Vegas have them pegged as the clear favorites.

While the level of excitement in Toronto about baseball has not been this high since the World Series runs of 1992 and 1993, the level of expectation is considerably high. For close to two decades, franchises like the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers continuously had very high payrolls with no championship to show for it.