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Shapiro is sitting in his Rogers Centre office, which is as spare and orderly as an operatory, slapping a table for emphasis.

Given his Ivy League twinset (sweater vest, button-down shirt), linebacker build and MBA patter, everything about Shapiro screams "America." But the Canadas are contagious, especially during late summer when the Jays are tumbling toward the end of a lost season.

Back in May, when everyone was still talking as though the year could be saved (though they knew it was doomed), Shapiro sat in this same office and testily batted questions away. Asked if the team was balanced (because it isn't), he said, "I don't have to answer that."

Well, if not him, then who?

It was a down time for everyone. After all those wild nights of back-to-back playoff runs, the Blue Jays were waking up face down on the bathroom floor.

That strain showed on Shapiro. The smile was tighter, the jargon thicker.

That's changed.

As what was likely to happen has become what's happened, Shapiro is more at ease. Perhaps that's because the organization has made its decision – this aging roster will be ridden until the end. All the back-and-forth about blowing up the Blue Jays is – internally, at least – over.

"We have what we think is an objective chance to contend [next season]," Shapiro says, enunciating carefully. "Admittedly, that's contingent on us staying healthy, which is something we did two years ago and didn't this year."

So there you go – it's ride-or-die baseball for one more season, and then the whole thing begins to come apart on its own.

That will enrage some people. This sort of course – the middle way, the maybe-things-will-turn-out way – led the Jays into two uninterrupted decades of mediocrity.

Given his druthers, Shapiro might choose the other way, the risky way. He's seen how Houston and the Chicago Cubs did it – by tearing out the foundation and rebuilding entirely. If performance were the only consideration, that would be the route to take.

But the Jays are stuck between those models for financial reasons.

The Cubs had a long history of losing while also maintaining massive fan support. They could afford to string out patience on the north side of town for a few years longer.

The Astros arrived at the same solution for the opposite reason – nobody in Houston cared. There was no disadvantage to going several more seasons with a ballpark that would be just as empty.

Though a loser, Toronto is still drawing substantial crowds (fifth-most in baseball) and still has healthy TV numbers (averaging in the neighbourhood of 800,000 viewers a game in the midst of a lost September). The club knows from experience that will evaporate if the team is publicly seen to be giving up. It's a non-starter from ownership's perspective.

While going on about "the incredible passion" of Jays' fans, Shapiro also charts its limits.

"It's not something that's deeply rooted. It's not something that's long term," Shapiro says. "It's historic, but with a long interval in between (meaning 1994 to 2014). Our job is to give fans something to cheer about. Right now, the easiest thing to cheer about is winning baseball."

So there will be no sell-off or tear-down. Josh Donaldson will not be traded over the winter for prospects nor will any of the other key, young pieces. A few spots will be open – left field and/or right field, the usual toss-up at the end of the starting order. Jose Bautista will be gently released back into the marketplace. Despite his sudden decline this year, Troy Tulowitzki will remain the shortstop.

The news here is that there's no news.

Meanwhile, they'll put their faith in a minor-league system that Shapiro says is now among the top-10 in baseball. The most promising players in it are still teenagers.

At some point, the Jays will have to jump from "win right now" to whatever's coming next. It's going to be a considerable distance – a couple of depressingly mediocre years at the very least. But no one in the Jays corner suites is ever going to say the word "rebuild" in front of a microphone. There are many millions of reasons not to.

I_Like_Dirt wrote:While true, Schad, I tend to judge Shapiro more by actions than words, and thus far he's proven pretty damn astute at judging talent. I can live with the team trying to "compete" provided they're simply sitting on their existing "stars" aren't throwing away picks and prospects to add more aging vets other than maybe a small-ish free agent contract here or there while also sniffing around younger adds like Gurriel last year. It's an easier job with more chances to get things right, but I trust Shapiro and his crew at this point.

I_Like_Dirt wrote:While true, Schad, I tend to judge Shapiro more by actions than words, and thus far he's proven pretty damn astute at judging talent. I can live with the team trying to "compete" provided they're simply sitting on their existing "stars" aren't throwing away picks and prospects to add more aging vets other than maybe a small-ish free agent contract here or there while also sniffing around younger adds like Gurriel last year. It's an easier job with more chances to get things right, but I trust Shapiro and his crew at this point.

vaff87 wrote:I'll trust the guys who built this Indians juggernaut to know how to build a winning tea.

Centre Court wrote:

vaff87 wrote:I'll trust the guys who built this Indians juggernaut to know how to build a winning tea.

Exactly. In 2016 they took over from Alex and pretty much had to run with the team as constructed. This year they started to make some moves and they seem headed in the right direction. I'm willing to give them another year or two before pressing the panac button. Jays are in better shape to build a long term winner with Shapiro, than if Alex had stayed.

Schad wrote:The problem isn't accelerating a rebuild, it's having any rebuild. All indications are that we don't intend to do that: we want to compete in 2018, and if fan interest is still there, we have talked about our window extending through 2020, when we'll lose Sanchez, Stroman and Osuna to free agency. The latter, in particular, is not going to be a panacea no matter how skilled Shapiro and Atkins are; no matter who your GM might be, in FA you can choose two of young, good and affordable, but you're damned sure not going to get all three.

So what we're left with is not a rebuild, and neither is it competitive in the short term. It doesn't have the money available to make a difference that way, isn't awash with disposable young assets to move in trade, and is entirely unwilling to move the assets of actual value we do have. Unless we're thinking that they're going to trade a nickel for a dollar a half-dozen times, I'm really unsure how we're expecting them to turn this around while our best players walk out the door a couple at a time each year from 2018-2020.