Despite their preference to avoid rentals, the Blue Jays have always made the most sense for David Price. While most other contenders have solid enough alternatives — especially with the Dodgers apparently on the verge of landing two quality starters in one fell swoop — to avoid paying a premium price for a short-term upgrade, the Blue Jays rotation are not in that position, and after designating Felix Doubront for assignment, they don’t even have a #5 starter at the moment. So this shouldn’t be a surprise.

sources: blue Jays are making a major push for david price

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) July 30, 2015

Executive involved in bidding for Price believes #BlueJays may indeed be close to landing him. “Not going to go on much longer,” he said.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 30, 2015

The Blue Jays have the kinds of young talent that the Tigers will be interested in, given their short-term window; a pitcher like Daniel Norris could replace Price immediately, giving the team a starter for 2016 and beyond. There’s a natural fit on both sides here, so both teams should be incentivized to make a deal with each other.

The interesting thing will be to see if the deal expands beyond Price. While the Blue Jays line-up is already too right-handed, they do need a better left fielder, and the Tigers are going to trade Yoenis Cespedes, most likely. If the Tigers insist on getting an elite return, perhaps the two teams will work out a deal that upgrades Toronto’s two weakest spots at the same time. After all, if you’re giving up big pieces of your farm system for a rental, you probably shouldn’t stop short and still be rolling out Ezequiel Carrera in the postseason.

Perhaps another team will get involved, but no team has a real reason to bid more on Price than the Blue Jays do. It’s the fit that makes the most sense, and should probably be the deal that gets done.