After a wild week, the Blue Jays and Dodgers have historic potential

Maybe they should add an offseason transaction deadline in baseball's next CBA to recreate the frenzy of activity that's occurred since the lockout ended. It's helped the game quickly put the ugly shutdown behind it, and some teams have taken advantage.

Two teams, in particular, were already among the top contenders: The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. This week, they have turned their already very good lineups into otherworldly groups. The clubs could rival the 2001 Seattle Mariners, 2016 Chicago Cubs, and 2019 Houston Astros - the best position-player groups of this century.

Chapman to the Blue Jays

Yes, the Blue Jays lineup is extremely right-handed, which could be problematic in a postseason series against a team with quality right-handed pitching. Joey Votto for DH, anyone?

But that's the only nitpicking one can do now.

The team's lone glaring positional player void was third base, and Toronto filled it with the game's best defensive third baseman in Matt Chapman, who also owns a career 120 wRC+. That checks a lot of boxes. The addition also didn't cost the Blue Jays any top prospects.

Chapman helps ease the loss of Marcus Semien, who left for Texas. The 2021 Jays trailed only the 2015 club in FanGraphs.com's position-player WAR, and that edition produced the most WAR since the 1992 World Series-winning club. This team could be even better.

The infielder's offensive numbers did decline the last two years as he dealt with a hip injury that required season-ending surgery in 2020. His strikeout rate has surged above 30%, and he lost four mph in average exit velocity off the bat last year. But having more time to heal from the surgery should benefit him this campaign. If his bat returns to its pre-2020 level, he's capable of being a 5-WAR superstar.

Chapman's defense has never slumped: He was second in Defensive Runs Saved among third basemen last year (10) to Atlanta's Austin Riley (13), and he ranks first among third basemen (78) since his debut year in 2017. Only Nolan Arenado is anywhere close to him.

That defense is key because no team had more defensive chances at third base last season than the Blue Jays in the right-handed-hitting dominant AL East.

The move is a pivotal one, with FanGraphs now moving the Blue Jays ahead of the New York Yankees in its AL East forecast.

Freeman to the Dodgers

The Dodgers didn't have many weaknesses on paper, but they did lose an excellent left-handed bat in Corey Seager, who also left for the Rangers in free agency.

Seager owns a career 132 wRC+ and has hit in the middle of the lineup on a lot of great L.A. teams. But in signing Freeman, the Dodgers add a left-handed hitter with a career 138 wRC+ mark who has a better health track record.

Freeman might have some more short-term upside, too.

Since his debut in 2010, the Braves have only fielded an above-average offense four times, based on wRC+. L.A. has been above average every year since 2013, save for one. It's going to be tougher to work around Freeman, and he'll have more opportunity to do damage in a lineup this loaded.

Freeman could help the Dodgers get back to the same offensive level that helped them lead the NL in wRC+ in 2017, 2018, and 2019 - the Mets and Giants topped the team in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

The best lineups got better this week, and now they are, perhaps, unstoppable.

Travis Sawchik is theScore's senior baseball writer.