TORONTO — There was no sudden finish to this Toronto Blue Jays season after lacking the postseason by a single win. There was no reeling after a stunning seven-run collapse in a Wild Card Collection elimination sport. And there was no try to justify a head-scratching choice to take away a starter dealing a shutout in yet one more postseason elimination sport.
The tip of this Blue Jays season, a 74-88 disappointment, had been simple to foresee ever because the membership traded away veterans on the deadline, a entrance workplace’s model of waving the white flag on the season. (With this 12 months’s Detroit Tigers a uncommon exception to that basic rule.)
The Blue Jays entrance workplace, led by workforce president and CEO Mark Shapiro and basic supervisor Ross Atkins, had months to arrange for Wednesday’s annual after-the-season, state-of-the-team deal with. Given the prolonged prep time in comparison with earlier years, there was hope that the duo would deviate from previous scripts and discover a solution to ring a bell with a fan base that’s exasperated and veering into apathetic with the membership’s postseason win drought reaching eight years.
Nevertheless, after Shapiro and Atkins mixed to spend almost an hour answering questions, the tenor of the message was largely the identical as years previous.
“We’re definitively dedicated to this core.”
Ross Atkins outlines his targets to be aggressive subsequent season. pic.twitter.com/2ZJfLYPDh7
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 2, 2024
Shapiro and Atkins took accountability and duty for the membership’s dropping season, a product of accidents, surprising underperformance throughout many elements of the roster and a scarcity of depth to complement the big-league membership.
They vowed to enhance each individually and as a company. They promised to make the required modifications to higher their course of and outcomes, notably with the offence on a downward pattern for 2 years. “It warrants some actual reflection on the way in which we’re placing the workforce collectively and mixing expertise,” Shapiro stated.
They pledged to the followers that they’re engaged on a plan to construct a profitable workforce subsequent season and are “assured that subsequent 12 months can be a significantly better 12 months,” Shapiro stated.
It’s what presidents and GMs all the time say after a season ends earlier than they might have favored, however contemplating how grossly far off the Blue Jays had been from preseason expectations this 12 months, and contemplating the familiarity of a disappointing end, these phrases and phrases rang particularly hole for a fan base whose endurance is thinner than a soggy Kleenex.
The Blue Jays are making some speedy modifications, specifically to the teaching employees. Atkins confirmed studies that hitting coach Guillermo Martinez has been fired, whereas bullpen coach Jeff Ware and subject coordinator Gil Kim have been faraway from the major-league teaching employees. Ware and Kim could possibly be retained in different roles inside the group, however are free to look elsewhere, in line with Atkins.
Don Mattingly, in the meantime, will revert to being a bench coach solely a 12 months after he was designated because the offensive coordinator, a task that was meant to streamline their inner offensive course of and be a salve for what ailed the lineup final 12 months. That experiment is over now, a whiplash-inducing flip that makes one additional query what all the time appeared like a Band-Assist answer to repair a flailing offence that solely worsened this season, because the Blue Jays completed twenty third in runs scored (671) in comparison with 14th (746) final season.
Elsewhere, the Blue Jays have additionally let go of a number of participant growth and minor-league employees.
“These modifications had been made with an effort to enhance areas we felt we have to get higher,” Shapiro stated. “On the participant growth facet, particularly our pitching growth and our pitching acquisition on the newbie degree, and on the major-league teaching employees, clearly the modifications immediately correlate with the 2 largest challenges we had on the workforce this 12 months.”
These firings increase a sound query of why coaches have paid the worth for the membership’s underperformance however the workforce’s architect (Atkins) and his boss (Shapiro) stay of their roles. (The query was requested of Shapiro however not answered.)
Pleas from some within the fan base to see Shapiro and Atkins axed have been like white noise nearly since they took over, so that they had been simple to disregard as background racket. However requires a change in management have been steadily rising in quantity over the past two seasons. A pre-season fan surveyat The Athleticrevealed middling to low confidence within the management and path of the workforce. It’s absolutely decrease now.
But when Rogers Communications possession is listening to these cries, it doesn’t seem they’re listening. There can be no altering of the guard on the high. Shapiro stays underneath contract by means of the top of subsequent season and “there gained’t be a change with Ross,” the workforce president confirmed.
“Ross must be higher. I should be higher. Our total baseball operations should be higher,” Shapiro stated. “However I additionally take into consideration the truth that we performed within the playoffs for 3 of the previous 5 years, that 4 of the previous 5, we performed significant video games by means of September. That every of the previous 4, we left spring coaching objectively with an opportunity to be a contending workforce and playoff workforce, and to me, that’s not grounds to make a change. If I felt there was a greater different to run our baseball operation, I’d make that change.”
So, Atkins will as soon as once more lead the membership into an offseason the place important work lies forward to reconstruct the roster into one that may compete within the powerful American League East. The priorities will embrace “including run-scoring and including to our bullpen,” the GM stated, later including that the outfield, designated hitter and probably third base are positions the place they see alternatives to enhance. Bringing in one other catcher is feasible, too, but it surely’s a decrease precedence.
As for what price range Atkins can be working with, Shapiro confirmed that subsequent 12 months’s payroll gained’t be “rising or lowering in a giant method.” The membership carried a franchise-record payroll into this season, however by means of mid-season trades, they labored to get under the CBT threshold.
“We need to be actually complete and inventive to make it possible for we’re doing it in a method that ensures we take a step,” Atkins stated of offseason provides. “As I’ve talked about, I should be higher. I’ve obtained to do a greater job of constructing that workforce round an excellent core that has been profitable, and I’m dedicated to doing so.”
Talking of that core, each Shapiro and Atkins acknowledged the looming problem of retaining Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, two franchise cornerstones who’re set to change into free brokers after subsequent season. Whereas neither Shapiro nor Atkins spoke in specifics about these contract negotiations, Atkins stated signing each gamers to long-term contracts, whereas persevering with to enhance the remainder of the roster, was “definitely a risk.”
“Now that doesn’t make it simply occur, as a result of it’s a risk,” Atkins stated. “It’s extraordinarily tough to signal one participant to an extension. Signing two is tough. Constructing round them additionally nonetheless requires ensuring that our farm system continues to contribute.”
Whereas Bichette had a forgettable 2024 resulting from struggles on the plate and accidents, Guerrero is coming off a season through which he hit .323/.396/.544 with 30 dwelling runs, completed close to the highest of MLB’s leaderboard in key offensive classes and regarded just like the famous person calibre participant he was when he was runner-up for the AL MVP in 2021. In opposition to that backdrop, Shapiro was requested if he thought Guerrero was a generational participant.
In what appeared like a possibility 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 participant then stated Guerrero is “one of many higher offensive gamers within the sport right now” and “has the chance to be a generational participant.”
“Definitely our core offensive participant.” 👏
Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. pic.twitter.com/lw1apHs5bY
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 2, 2024
It’s comprehensible if Shapiro didn’t need to place undue strain on the primary baseman. Or maybe he was pondering forward to a negotiation and didn’t need to use such a lofty label. Shapiro might have sidestepped answering definitively whereas leveraging the query as an opportunity to heap reward on the participant who carried the offence, is adored by followers and who the membership may be making an attempt to woo to a report deal. As an alternative, he demurred.
In the end, what unfolds with Guerrero and Bichette stays to be seen. However the Blue Jays are resolute that subsequent season, they’re going forward with this core in pursuit of constructing a winner. We’ve heard it earlier than, and now, it’s solely a matter of ready to see if it will probably occur.
“We’re definitively dedicated to this core,” Atkins stated. “I’ve stated this to Bo and Vladdy that they’ve completed very highly effective issues already, they usually’ve completed them as a workforce. They’ve completed distinctive issues to (attempt to) win the AL East, and never sufficient — not sufficient to their requirements, nor mine, and definitely not the followers. However what they’ve achieved already is outstanding, and there’s quite a lot of good baseball forward of them, and I hope it’s collectively.”
(Photograph of Shapiro: Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press by way of Related Press)
