KANSAS CITY—The Blue Jays are by no means looking at this as a one-and-done in terms of qualifying for the post-season. There seems to be a legitimate window open for at least one more year based on the number of key offensive players under contract that will return.

That being said, there are huge question marks on the pitching side that will have to be addressed by the new front-office team of GM Alex Anthopoulos and president Mark Shapiro. Nothing has yet been formalized regarding the return of Anthopoulos but, at this stage, if he doesn’t return it will likely be his choice. Shapiro’s first official day as prez is Nov. 1 and GM is a priority.

In terms of a 2016 batting order, it’s amazing the Jays only lose a grand total of 526 plate appearances from players that finished the season with them. The list of players likely to be shown the door includes catcher Dioner Navarro, outfielder Ezequiel Carrera plus infielders Cliff Pennington, Munenori Kawasaki and Darwin Barney. Everyone else is under club control.

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That means, without lifting a finger to dial a fellow GM’s number, the opening day lineup could list Ben Revere, Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki, Chris Colabello/Justin Smoak, Russell Martin, Kevin Pillar and Ryan Goins. The bench could be chosen from among a recovered Michael Saunders and Devon Travis, Dalton Pompey and Josh Thole.

But it’s on the pitching side the Jays will need to do a lot of heavy lifting to ensure they have what it takes to repeat as a playoff team.

Eligible for free agency from among the pitchers will be David Price, Mark Buehrle, Marco Estrada, LaTroy Hawkins, Mark Lowe and Jeff Francis. That group of six pitchers cost the Jays a combined $33 million (U.S.) this year — if you narrow Price’s salary down to the amount the Jays had to pay after acquiring him at the end of July. There are big decisions on the pitching staff to be made.

The biggest question mark of all is Price and whether to be competitive on trying to re-sign him or to spend those resources elsewhere and rationalize the belief that having Marcus Stroman for a full season is the equivalent at the top of the rotation as bringing back Price — which it isn’t.

What will Price be looking for? He is 30, so he will want seven years, because who wants to negotiate another contract at 35 or 36? He will want between $22 million-$30 million per season, because that is the range of the top nine pitcher salaries in major league history. The list includes Clayton Kershaw (seven years/$215M), Max Scherzer (seven/$210M), Justin Verlander (seven/$180M), Felix Hernandez (seven/$175M), C.C. Sabathia (seven/$161M), Masahiro Tanaka (seven/$155M), Jon Lester (six/$155M), Zack Greinke (six/$147M) and Cole Hamels (six/$144M). Price fits nicely within that group.

It says here the Jays will not bring Price back. As for Buehrle, he will either retire or take a short-term contract with a team in the U.S. Midwest. That’s 24 wins between the two veterans that need to be replaced. As for Estrada, the Jays have an excellent chance of bringing him back for a three- or four-year deal at a reasonable number. He’s already 32 and Toronto is where he had his first real success.

Remember, the Jays are not just trying to compete in 2016, they will be trying to repeat their trip to the October dance-floor. But they can be looking at a rotation of Stroman, R.A. Dickey, Estrada, Aaron Sanchez and Drew Hutchison. Sanchez was a starter until he was hurt in June and was rehabbing as a starter before they realized they needed immediate help in the eighth inning. He will likely be a starter again next spring. However, that quintet of potential starters only combined for 665 innings and 48 wins. Clearly, minus Price there will need to be at least one major signing or a trade.

The bullpen will also need help, but that’s an area easy to re-stock via free-agency, with good scouting and a little bit of luck. These playoffs showed how thin the Jays’ bullpen actually is in terms of arms that manager John Gibbons trusts. The injury to Brett Cecil and the family issue for Aaron Loup that caused him to miss three games highlighted the organization’s weakness from the left side.

From the bullpen’s right side, 42-year-old Hawkins will retire and Lowe will be difficult to re-sign. Liam Hendriks was impressive for most of the season as a hard-throwing middle man, and Osuna is the likely first choice to repeat in the closer’s role. That’s pretty thin, given all the promising young arms from the farm system that were dealt away in the last week of July.

There is a lot of off-season work to be done, but the returning position players that led the major leagues in runs scored gives the Jays a nice head start.