Toronto Blue Jays extend contract of GM Ross Atkins beyond 2019 season

polo007 · Post #1 » by **polo007** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 1:56 am

TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays quietly extended the contract of Ross Atkins recently, a move that will keep him in place as general manager beyond the current season.

The Blue Jays named Atkins the seventh GM in franchise history on December 3, 2015, at which point he signed a four-year deal that ran through 2019. While specifics of the new extension aren’t known, it covers at least the 2020 season.

When contacted, Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro declined to comment on the contract status of any front office employees.

Shapiro joined the Blue Jays on a five-year deal running through the 2020 season while manager Charlie Montoyo signed a three-year deal through 2021 with a club option.

With Atkins as GM, the Blue Jays have undergone significant transition in a relatively short period of time. In 2016 they reached the ALCS before losing to Cleveland. In 2017-18 injuries and poor performances undermined potential contenders and led to the trades of Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin, Kevin Pillar and others.

As for the 2019 Blue Jays, they’re clearly a team geared toward the future with a 23-38 record entering play Thursday and an offence that ranks 27th among the 30 teams in runs scored.

Brinbe · Post #2 » by **Brinbe** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 4:01 am

not really surprising that they extended him. but wonder how long a leash they get from rogers?

I_Like_Dirt · Post #3 » by **I_Like_Dirt** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 3:12 pm

Brinbe wrote:not really surprising that they extended him. but wonder how long a leash they get from rogers?

This is where things start to get dangerous. The opportunistic con men will spot a team that's gone through the harder part of a rebuild that's about to start rising and see an chance to take credit for it. Hopefully Rogers sticks it out with Atkins a few more years at least.

So_Fresh · Post #4 » by **So_Fresh** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 6:24 pm

I'd give Atkins and Shapiro one more season. If the team doesn't improve by next season (80 wins minimum.) then you look elsewhere. By next season you are in year 5 of this rebuild with Shatkins. How long do you give someone if we don't see any progress?

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Post #5 » by **Schad** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 8:13 pm

The problem is that you're setting up a perverse incentive. I'm sure they can get this team to 80 wins next year; that probably isn't in our long-term interest. We're rebuilding, and pushing them to short-circuit that in order to be mediocre is suboptimal.

I_Like_Dirt · Post #6 » by **I_Like_Dirt** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 8:25 pm

So_Fresh wrote:I'd give Atkins and Shapiro one more season. If the team doesn't improve by next season (80 wins minimum.) then you look elsewhere. By next season you are in year 5 of this rebuild with Shatkins. How long do you give someone if we don't see any progress?

Beyond Schad's point, which is totally valid, this team is only 3 seasons removed from making the playoffs and absolutely gutted the farm team to get to that point (and honestly didn't have a very good farm team then, either) and then was stuck with those players because the team wanted to appear to be competitive. Minimum 80 wins in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox before most of his draft picks have even had a chance to make the team let alone try winning is problematic. It's also telling any other prospective GMs out there that the team isn't willing to actually have patience to build a farm team and is more interested in short-term shots, which is going to restrict the kinds of people that are actually interested in the job.

Kurtz · Post #7 » by **Kurtz** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 9:01 pm

We're only in the first full year of an earnest rebuild, so if you trust these guys with the rebuild, you have to give them at least a few more years.

If you were to fire them earlier, I think it'd have to be based on their record of signings and trades, which I think we can all agree has been rather mediocre so far. But they'll get another swing at redeeming themselves in this regard this year.

So_Fresh · Post #8 » by **So_Fresh** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 11:02 pm

I_Like_Dirt wrote:
So_Fresh wrote:I'd give Atkins and Shapiro one more season. If the team doesn't improve by next season (80 wins minimum.) then you look elsewhere. By next season you are in year 5 of this rebuild with Shatkins. How long do you give someone if we don't see any progress?

Beyond Schad's point, which is totally valid, this team is only 3 seasons removed from making the playoffs and absolutely gutted the farm team to get to that point (and honestly didn't have a very good farm team then, either) and then was stuck with those players because the team wanted to appear to be competitive. Minimum 80 wins in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox before most of his draft picks have even had a chance to make the team let alone try winning is problematic. It's also telling any other prospective GMs out there that the team isn't willing to actually have patience to build a farm team and is more interested in short-term shots, which is going to restrict the kinds of people that are actually interested in the job.

I'm afraid this city and it's fans and ownership don't have the patience to wait 3 more years to be competitive again. I understand this is the only way right now with the young core that we have. We can accelerate this with FA signings and trades over that time and hope to be competitive again.

One thing i'm worried about is getting rid of Stroman and Sanchez. You do this and you deplete your starting rotation and take a step back. Unless you get some young arms coming back that are good and ready to pitch in the majors. More and more teams are falling out of a wild card and their divisional race which will make it harder to find an offer that will be worth it imo.

So_Fresh · Post #9 » by **So_Fresh** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 11:06 pm

Kurtz wrote:We're only in the first full year of an earnest rebuild, so if you trust these guys with the rebuild, you have to give them at least a few more years.

If you were to fire them earlier, I think it'd have to be based on their record of signings and trades, which I think we can all agree has been rather mediocre so far. But they'll get another swing at redeeming themselves in this regard this year.

I agree it has been mediocre and this is my concern. I'm all for giving them another swing at it, but i'm not very optimistic. Let's see what happens.

Post #10 » by **Schad** » Fri Jun 7, 2019 11:54 pm

So_Fresh wrote:I'm afraid this city and it's fans and ownership don't have the patience to wait 3 more years to be competitive again. I understand this is the only way right now with the young core that we have. We can accelerate this with FA signings and trades over that time and hope to be competitive again.

First, my feeling is that if the fans and ownership cannot wait for a few years to build a competitive club, they don't deserve a competitive club. They deserve what we had for nearly two decades, where we prioritized pretending to be good over actually attempting to be good. Second, my feeling is that 90% of the people who can be sometimes considered Jays fans straight up don't give a **** because we're not good. Because a large portion of our fanbase is of rather flexible allegiance, we can't really make decisions on their behalf, because even if they prefer the move today, it won't last if we aren't genuinely good. And we aren't in a position to be that.

One thing i'm worried about is getting rid of Stroman and Sanchez. You do this and you deplete your starting rotation and take a step back. Unless you get some young arms coming back that are good and ready to pitch in the majors. More and more teams are falling out of a wild card and their divisional race which will make it harder to find an offer that will be worth it imo.

It's certainly a possibility. That said, we really only have two options: re-sign Stroman to a big-money deal, or trade him. The former is arguably more risky than the latter, because you're starting a rebuild by handing $20m a year to a player who doesn't actually matter for at least a couple years.

As for Sanchez, he's a bad starter. I seriously doubt he'll ever be anything but a bad starter. He lacks command or a deep repertoire or the ability to get consistent swinging strikes. If someone offers us anything of value for him we ought to take it, because he isn't a valuable commodity.

Tanner · Post #11 » by **Tanner** » Mon Jun 10, 2019 2:22 am

Yeah if Rogers approved a scorched earth rebuild then I don't see why anyone is on a short term deal right now. It would be irresponsible to allow your front office to tank like Sam Hinkie and not have job security beyond 2020.

If Shapiro is staying beyond his existing contract, then this short term deal might be showing a lack of faith in Atkins.

rarefind · Post #12 » by **rarefind** » Mon Jun 10, 2019 4:07 am

I would certainly hope that Rogers is not so remarkably stupid to tie team performance to the job being done by the FO. That being said, there are criteria that Shatkins should be held accountable to. The only problem is that we dont know the degree of involvement Rogers has with organizational decisions. Hard to judge a FO when you don't know whether the decisions are being made at the executive or ownership level.

Nonetheless, Rogers could certainly shake up the front office with more experience and with a better performance history than Shapiro.

ratul · Post #13 » by **ratul** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 10:31 am

Wow, this is moronic. This front office needed to go. Yesterday

Post #14 » by **Duffman100** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 4:44 pm

ratul wrote:Wow, this is moronic. This front office needed to go. Yesterday

Honest question.... why?

ratul · Post #15 » by **ratul** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:30 pm

Duffman100 wrote:
ratul wrote:Wow, this is moronic. This front office needed to go. Yesterday

Honest question.... why?

They are terrible. Shapiro has a terrible record as a GM, doesn't value defense and generally field non-interesting and un-fun teams. We are becoming Cleveland. Part two. This front office is systematically burning the team into the ground.

Black Watch · Post #16 » by **Black Watch** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:42 pm

ratul wrote:We are becoming Cleveland. Part two. This front office is systematically burning the team into the ground.

I mean, Major League II was better than Major League I, so... I'll take it

Post #17 » by **Duffman100** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:46 pm

ratul wrote:
Duffman100 wrote:
ratul wrote:Wow, this is moronic. This front office needed to go. Yesterday

Honest question.... why?

They are terrible. Shapiro has a terrible record as a GM, doesn't value defense and generally field non-interesting and un-fun teams. We are becoming Cleveland. Part two. This front office is systematically burning the team into the ground.

What moves have been bad?

Post #18 » by **Duffman100** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:46 pm

Black Watch wrote:
ratul wrote:We are becoming Cleveland. Part two. This front office is systematically burning the team into the ground.

I mean, Major League II was better than Major League I, so... I'll take it

****ing blasphemy.

wamco · Post #19 » by **wamco** » Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:00 pm

ratul · Post #20 » by **ratul** » Sun Jun 23, 2019 8:24 am

Duffman100 wrote:
ratul wrote:
Duffman100 wrote:
Honest question.... why?

They are terrible. Shapiro has a terrible record as a GM, doesn't value defense and generally field non-interesting and un-fun teams. We are becoming Cleveland. Part two. This front office is systematically burning the team into the ground.

What moves have been bad?

I don’t really like anything he has done. Paying grichuk 55 mn, screwing up Edwin situation, not valuing defense, creating a rumoured poor clubhouse vibe, trading all our decent assets. He has an extremely poor track record as a gm, yet gets a pass in our city.