TORONTO — About an hour after what may have been his final start in Toronto as a member of the Blue Jays, Kevin and Taylor Gausman, holding hands, walked onto the Rogers Centre field, found a spot up the left-field line, plopped down against the wall and talked. 

The veteran right-hander’s wife wasn’t supposed to be in the city, and he didn’t know she’d flown in until he returned to the clubhouse following his outing and saw a picture from her on his phone. Partly due to in-season blinders, partly out of devotion to the club he’s been such a vital part of the past five years, Gausman was trying to avoid thinking about a possibility that’s increasingly set to become a reality. 

In case Tuesday night was it, she didn’t want to miss it.

“I didn’t really want to go on the field, to be honest,” Gausman told Sportsnet on Wednesday. “She just kind of told me, like, ‘Hey, let's go onto the field for a little while,’ not really thinking too much of it, but now I'm glad we did. The biggest thing, I really hope that I'm able to come back here, at least next weekend, just like one last time.”

Whether Gausman gets that final hurrah — his turn next comes up Sunday at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, followed by Aug. 1 against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals — is one of many difficult questions before the Blue Jays ahead of the trade deadline, all but certain to feature subtraction.

The moments shared by the Gausmans on Tuesday night are reflective of the human toll that comes........

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