Shapiro sees ‘no reason’ to fire Blue Jays GM after disappointing year

Despite the Toronto Blue Jays finishing last in the American League East, team president Mark Shapiro said Wednesday that general manager Ross Atkins will remain in his role.

During a conference call to bow out a season in which the Blue Jays finished 74-88, Shapiro said he and Atkins were not proud of the season.

“Ros must be better. I have to be better. Our entire baseball operation needs to improve,” he told reporters before trumpeting the fact that the current regime has led the Blue Jays to the postseason for three of the past five seasons.

“We left spring training objectively with the opportunity to be a contending team and a playoff team. And for me that is no reason to change anything. … If I felt there was a better alternative to running our baseball operation, I would make that change.

While it is true that Toronto did play in the playoffs, in both cases they were in the wild card round and failed to get a win in either series.

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Blue Jays players took their own bow on a disappointing season by being swept 26-7 by the Miami Marlins in a three-game sweep.

While the front office remains largely untouched, Atkins told reporters that changes were made to the coaching staff as the team fired coach Guillermo Martinez, field coordinator Gil Kim and bullpen coach Jeff Ware.

“We also adjusted Donnie (Mattingly)’s role,” Atkins said. “Donnie will no longer oversee the offense. He will return to the more traditional role of bench coach.”

Given the way the team finished the 2024 season, some might think it’s time for a rebuild. However, the team will not go in that direction and will try to get back to its winning ways, the GM said.

With Atkins in the top spot, it would be difficult for him to consider a rebuild.

Vladdy Guerrero and Bo Bichette, two of the team’s biggest names, are entering the final year of their contracts. So it begs the question of whether the team should try to sign either player if they can’t agree to an extension this summer.

Atkins was non-committal when asked how to handle the situation.

“I would never say we have to do something or we don’t have to do something,” he explained. “And we’re fortunate that we have incredible support that never puts us in a corner like that.”

How much support the team has remains a topic of debate among many Blue Jays fans, but Shapiro doesn’t expect any major payroll changes for next season.

“I don’t see it being dramatically different next year,” the Jays president told reporters. “I know this isn’t a precise number, and not that I would ever give you one, but I don’t see it growing or decreasing by any significant amount.”

Atkins was brought in by Shapiro in 2016 after former general manager Alex Anthopoulos resigned from the club, citing his belief that Shapiro would not give him the autonomy he wanted to run the club.

In his final season as GM, Anthopoulos’ Jays finished with a 93-69 record and reached the AL Championship series.

A year later, under Atkins’ leadership, the Jays returned to the AL Championship series after finishing with an 89–73 record.

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