TORONTO — There was no sudden end to this Toronto Blue Jays season after missing the postseason by a single win. There was no reeling after a shocking seven-run collapse in a Wild Card Series elimination game. And there was no attempt to justify a head-scratching decision to remove a starter dealing a shutout in yet another postseason elimination game.
The end of this Blue Jays season, a 74-88 disappointment, had been easy to foresee ever since the club traded away veterans at the deadline, a front office’s version of waving the white flag on the season. (With this year’s Detroit Tigers a rare exception to that general rule.)
The Blue Jays front office, led by team president and CEO Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins, had months to prepare for Wednesday’s annual after-the-season, state-of-the-team address. Given the extended prep time compared to previous years, there was hope that the duo would deviate from past scripts and find a way to strike a chord with a fan base that is exasperated and veering into apathetic with the club’s postseason win drought reaching eight years.
However, after Shapiro and Atkins combined to spend nearly an hour answering questions, the tenor of the message was largely the same as years past.
“We are definitively committed to this core.”
Ross Atkins outlines his goals to be competitive next season. pic.twitter.com/2ZJfLYPDh7
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 2, 2024
Shapiro and Atkins took accountability and responsibility for the club’s losing season, a product of injuries, unexpected underperformance across many parts of the roster and a lack of depth to supplement the big-league club.
They vowed to improve both individually and as an organization. They promised to make the necessary changes to better their process and results, particularly with the offence on a downward trend for two years. “It warrants some real reflection on the way we’re putting the team together and combining talent,” Shapiro said.
They pledged to the fans that they’re working on a plan to build a winning team next season and are “confident that next year will be a much better year,” Shapiro said.
It’s what presidents and GMs always say after a season ends sooner than they would have liked, but considering how grossly far off the Blue Jays were from preseason expectations this year, and considering the familiarity of a disappointing finish, those words and phrases rang especially hollow for a fan base whose patience is thinner than a soggy Kleenex.
The Blue Jays are making some immediate changes, namely to the coaching staff. Atkins confirmed reports that hitting coach Guillermo Martinez has been fired, while bullpen coach Jeff Ware and field coordinator Gil Kim have been removed from the major-league coaching staff. Ware and Kim could be retained in other roles within the organization, but are free to look elsewhere, according to Atkins.
Don Mattingly, meanwhile, will revert to being a bench coach only a year after he was designated as the offensive coordinator, a role that was meant to streamline their internal offensive process and be a salve for what ailed the lineup last year. That experiment is over now, a whiplash-inducing flip that makes one further question what always seemed like a Band-Aid solution to fix a flailing offence that only worsened this season, as the Blue Jays finished 23rd in runs scored (671) compared to 14th (746) last season.
Elsewhere, the Blue Jays have also let go of several player development and minor-league staff.
“Those changes were made with an effort to improve areas we felt we need to get better,” Shapiro said. “On the player development side, specifically our pitching development and our pitching acquisition at the amateur level, and on the major-league coaching staff, obviously the changes directly correlate with the two biggest challenges we had on the team this year.”
Those firings raise a valid question of why coaches have paid the price for the club’s underperformance but the team’s architect (Atkins) and his boss (Shapiro) remain in their roles. (The question was asked of Shapiro but not answered.)
Pleas from some in the fan base to see Shapiro and Atkins axed have been like white noise almost since they took over, so they had been easy to ignore as background racket. But calls for a change in leadership have been steadily rising in volume over the last two seasons. A pre-season fan survey at The Athletic revealed middling to low confidence in the leadership and direction of the team. It is surely lower now.
But if Rogers Communications ownership is hearing those cries, it doesn’t appear they are listening. There will be no changing of the guard at the top. Shapiro remains under contract through the end of next season and “there won’t be a change with Ross,” the team president confirmed.
“Ross needs to be better. I need to be better. Our entire baseball operations need to be better,” Shapiro said. “But I also think about the fact that we played in the playoffs for three of the past five years, that four of the past five, we played meaningful games through September. That each of the past four, we left spring training objectively with a chance to be a contending team and playoff team, and to me, that’s not grounds to make a change. If I felt there was a better alternative to run our baseball operation, I’d make that change.”
So, Atkins will once again lead the club into an offseason where significant work lies ahead to reconstruct the roster into one that can compete in the tough American League East. The priorities will include “adding run-scoring and adding to our bullpen,” the GM said, later adding that the outfield, designated hitter and potentially third base are positions where they see opportunities to improve. Bringing in another catcher is possible, too, but it’s a lower priority.
As for what budget Atkins will be working with, Shapiro confirmed that next year’s payroll won’t be “growing or decreasing in a big way.” The club carried a franchise-record payroll into this season, but through mid-season trades, they worked to get below the CBT threshold.
“We want to be really comprehensive and creative to make sure that we’re doing it in a way that ensures we take a step,” Atkins said of offseason adds. “As I’ve talked about, I need to be better. I have got to do a better job of building that team around a very good core that has been successful, and I’m committed to doing so.”
Speaking of that core, both Shapiro and Atkins acknowledged the looming challenge of retaining Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, two franchise cornerstones who are set to become free agents after next season. While neither Shapiro nor Atkins spoke in specifics about those contract negotiations, Atkins said signing both players to long-term contracts, while continuing to augment the rest of the roster, was “certainly a possibility.”
“Now that doesn’t make it just happen, because it’s a possibility,” Atkins said. “It’s extremely difficult to sign one player to an extension. Signing two is difficult. Building around them also still requires making sure that our farm system continues to contribute.”
While Bichette had a forgettable 2024 due to struggles at the plate and injuries, Guerrero is coming off a season in which he hit .323/.396/.544 with 30 home runs, finished near the top of MLB’s leaderboard in key offensive categories and looked like the superstar calibre player he was when he was runner-up for the AL MVP in 2021. Against that backdrop, Shapiro was asked if he thought Guerrero was a generational player.
In what seemed like an opportunity to cater to a fan base enamoured with the 25-year-old following his sensational season, Shapiro flubbed the potential layup. He first mused on the definition of a generational player then said Guerrero is “one of the better offensive players in the game today” and “has the opportunity to be a generational player.”
“Certainly our core offensive player.” 👏
Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. pic.twitter.com/lw1apHs5bY
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 2, 2024
It’s understandable if Shapiro didn’t want to place undue pressure on the first baseman. Or perhaps he was thinking ahead to a negotiation and didn’t want to use such a lofty label. Shapiro could have sidestepped answering definitively while leveraging the question as a chance to heap praise on the player who carried the offence, is adored by fans and who the club might be trying to woo to a record deal. Instead, he demurred.
Ultimately, what unfolds with Guerrero and Bichette remains to be seen. But the Blue Jays are resolute that next season, they’re going ahead with this core in pursuit of building a winner. We’ve heard it before, and now, it’s only a matter of waiting to see if it can happen.
“We are definitively committed to this core,” Atkins said. “I’ve said this to Bo and Vladdy that they have done very powerful things already, and they’ve done them as a team. They’ve done exceptional things to (try to) win the AL East, and not enough — not enough to their standards, nor mine, and certainly not the fans. But what they’ve accomplished already is exceptional, and there’s a lot of good baseball ahead of them, and I hope it’s together.”
(Photo of Shapiro: Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press via Associated Press)
