LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Where do the Toronto Blue Jays go from here?

Giancarlo Stanton and his 59 home runs are in the Bronx. Not much needs to be said about how that affects the Jays’ path in the AL East.

Two-way star Shohei Ohtani chose the 80-win Los Angeles Angels, a shot in the arm for a franchise that has relied on Mike Trout’s brilliance to keep them on the outer edges of contention for far too long.

Jerry Dipoto and the 78-win Seattle Mariners have added Dee Gordon and Ryon Healy and finished as the bridesmaid for Ohtani.

That’s three improved American League teams.

One is a division rival with endless resources, and two are West Coast foes that the Blue Jays will undoubtedly battle for a wild-card spot as they did last season, finishing four games behind the Angels and two in arrears of the M’s.

The thickening wild-card plot is what should concern the Jays’ front office, not an unrealistic division pennant chase.

General Manager Ross Atkins was already well behind the Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the American League East race and Stanton is just an exclamation point on that problem.

When Atkins and Mark Shapiro decided to forego a full teardown and publicly point to a desire to get back into contention in 2018, it was never about winning the division.

It couldn’t have been.

It’s about a 10-game or so improvement from 76 wins to get back into the wild-card race, a marathon they won in 2016 with 89 wins and a memorable Edwin Encarnacion walk off shot.

Two months into the off-season, the roster hasn’t improved by 10 wins. Not even close.

Truthfully, if this ball club is going to do what Atkins and Shapiro believe it can do, most of the improvement is going to come from within: A healthy Aaron Sanchez, a full, MVP-type season from Josh Donaldson, 2016-ish seasons from Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ, and some reasonable health and production from Troy Tulowitzki, Devon Travis and Russell Martin.

If most of those things don’t happen, even getting back to .500 will be a tough ask.

What the Yankees and Red Sox did or are doing this winter shouldn’t change that plan because the Jays were never going to be any better than the third-best team in the division on paper.

Heading into the Winter Meetings, however, the to-do list is daunting and Atkins will have opportunities to pivot down different paths, even if it’ll be hard to do so after screaming from the rooftops for five months to the three-million plus that gave the Rogers Centre turnstiles a workout that a rebuild wasn’t on the horizon.

The St. Louis Cardinals will be calling about Josh Donaldson this week — others will, too — and with little in the way of tangible contract extension talks to speak of thus far, it stands to reason that the Jays will at least be in listening mode on their franchise player.

If you assume young and controllable starters Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are off limits, Donaldson and potentially closer Roberto Osuna represent Atkins’ best opportunities to restock the pipeline.

Up to this point, they’ve maintained that’s not in the plan but the interesting question for Atkins & Co. now is: what’s the pitch?

How do you convince a free agent that, at best, the third-best team on paper in the division has a chance?

They don’t have legitimate contention to sell like the Yankees and Red Sox do.

They don’t have beaches and the West Coast lifestyle to peddle, like the Angels just did successfully.

And while those of us who live here look at Toronto, the city, as a world-class destination, there’s little proof of high-end free agents caring about that.

That leaves money and additional years on a contract.

Additional years is something the Jays wouldn’t leverage last winter, eventually losing out on outfielder Dexter Fowler when the Cardinals tacked a fifth year onto a bunch of four-year offers, and it would be wise for the Jays to use a similar strategy when contention seems like such an iffy proposition.

If that’s the case, the Jays will be left trolling for short-term bargains that won’t exactly get the fan base frothing over another baseball season.

There isn’t an area of this roster that couldn’t use an upgrade.

The trade for Aledmys Diaz helped addressed depth concerns in the middle infield, but Atkins’ goal at the beginning of the off-season was to acquire one impact bat and one impact arm.

That hasn’t happened yet.

They could use a starter, but the top options will be expensive.

Despite an attempt by Atkins this winter to show a comfort level with the current outfield mix, a combination of kids (Teoscar Hernandez and Anthony Alford) and veterans (Steve Pearce and Ezequiel Carrera) in the corner outfield spots isn’t going improve the worst offence in the American League — a right field solution is desperately needed.

The bullpen seems to be solid, but a number of key arms were worked hard last season and there’s worry that might factor into the equation next summer.

A backup catcher to ease the burden on the soon-to-be 35-year-old Martin is also necessary.

“To continue to complement our positional roster — infield and outfield — and add to our pitching,” Atkins said of his goals rather non-specifically heading into the annual meetings. “Whether that’s starting or relief or both, it’ll kind of depend on how other things take place and what alternatives present themselves. We could also look to upgrade our backup catching position, but feel good about Luke Maile and feel he’ll be hard to upgrade on.”

The best chance for Atkins to improve this roster may come via trade as they toe the line between trying to build up the system and strategically turning what superfluous pieces there are in the organization into win-now help.

“We still have resources in player(s) and money to add to our team, and we’ll look to do that and we have a great handle on what those alternatives are,” Atkins said.

If there’s one benefit to having so many glaring needs, it’s that it will allow for the opportunity to take advantage of the market.

Spend big on a starter.

Spend big on a high-profile outfielder.

Spread the wealth and add to each area of the roster.

The plan can change based on where the value is once the money starts flying.

“You have to understand where your pivots could be, and we’ve thought about those and feel as though there’s more than one way to make our team a better one,” Atkins said.

Just don’t expect them to pivot into a rebuild.

Yet.​