Things are finally looking up for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Of course, that’s easy to say since, for most of the season, things looked like they couldn’t get much worse. Simply getting a healthy Josh Donaldson back in the lineup, not to mention Troy Tulowitzki, J.A. Happ and Francisco Liriano, is cause for celebration for this beleaguered and beaten crew.

But before we start thinking that the return of some very recognizable starters means the team is saved, let’s take a moment and thank those lesser names, such as Ryan Goins, Joe Biagini, Ezequiel Carrera, Joe Smith and a few other (normally) B players, for keeping the team pegged at a win/loss record that ensures the return to health of the big names actually matters.

While it’s true the past 10 days have been the best stretch of baseball the Blue Jays have played this season, a hot streak doesn’t redeem such a poor start. After all, the Jays are still in last place in the AL East.

But that’s not going to last much longer.

It’s not so much that the Jays have me feeling positive about the future; it’s more about the Jays plus the state of the AL East as a whole.

Oh, sure, the Jays have been great lately. But the Jays are not only healthier; they’re also hotter. Most notably, a pair of regulars – Devon Travis and Jose Bautista – is red hot. Entering play Monday night, Travis is hitting .360 in May, with an OPS over .1000 and 15 doubles. Bautista, who hit under .100 for the bulk of April, is hitting .300 in May, also with an OPS over .1000 and eight home runs.

Their production is huge because, even with the return of Donaldson and Tulowitzki, Travis and Bautista’s April production was worse than cold. They were in liability territory, certified rally-killers. Considering that Carrera, Goins, Justin Smoak, Kevin Pillar and Kendrys Morales have all held their own if not exceeded expectations (Smoak is outhitting Edwin Encarnacion in all relevant offensive categories), a hot Bautista and Travis’s resurgence added to a healthy Donaldson and Tulowitzki make the present Jays lineup look more threatening than it has in years past.

All this is great, yes, but there's more.

The AL East is much better this year than it has been in a while. The Yankees are seeing the birth of multiple superstars, such as Aaron Judge, Ronald Torreyes and Gary Sanchez. The Orioles are enjoying their own offensive prowess, coupled with an excellent pen. Boston is about to get David Price back and Chris Sale is having a season of seasons. Even the Rays, whom many wrote off as a team in a rebuilding year, have exceeded expectations.

In the past two years, most of the teams in the AL East have had a glaring issue. In 2015 and 2016, the Yankees were too old (a.k.a. the Crankies) and poor Joe Girardi had to set up a player rotation schedule around sore bodies and recovery time. They platooned their way into relevancy, but didn’t have enough in the tank to go the distance.

The Rays were young and full of prospects, but injuries and fiscal constraints kept them out of the mix. Boston continued to buy big names and supplement its roster of young, emerging stars, but couldn’t seem to get the job done when it mattered. The Orioles never seemed to have enough starting pitching to support their offence.

The Jays rolled over everyone in 2015 with world-beating offence. In 2016, they weren’t quite as potent at the plate, but their upswing in starting rotation power filled the gap. The difference today isn’t so much about the Jays’ incumbent talent levels, it’s that the rest of the division suddenly has oodles of skill and has shored up many weak spots.

The AL East is one of the strongest divisions in baseball, if not the strongest. While that may seem like a bad thing for the Jays now that they’re back near 100 per cent health, it’s actually one of the main reasons they’re still in the hunt.

The AL East has cannibalized itself to the point that it’s still any team’s division to win. That’s the best-case scenario when your team stumbles out of the gate.

Consider that the Yankees (currently in first) are six wins ahead of the Jays (currently in last). Yes, the Yankees are good, but they’re also going to face the Red Sox, Rays and Orioles more than 30 more times this season. They also have 16 more games against the Jays. Tough teams matching up with tough teams make every win precious, or costly.

Now consider that the Astros, presently running away with the AL West, are 13 wins ahead of both Seattle and Oakland (tied for last in the West), and will face those two teams a combined 25 more times. That’s a lot of in-division padding for a club that’s already running hot. If the Jays were in the AL West they’d be an afterthought, and it wouldn't matter who was going on or off the DL.

While the Blue Jays will have to face tougher opponents for the rest of the year, at least if they beat them they’ve got a chance to get back into the postseason race. Seattle and Oakland, on the other hand, aren’t catching up with Houston unless the Astros completely and utterly explode.

Believe it or not, when you start the year as poorly as the Jays have, a tight division may be the best thing a suddenly healthy and hot club has going for it.