11:00am: Atkins revealed during his own media availability that bench coach and offensive coordinator Don Mattingly will no longer oversee the team’s offense; he’ll fill a “more traditional” bench coach role. Between the change in Mattingly’s role and the reported firing of hitting coach Guillermo Martinez — which Atkins confirmed — the team will conduct an external search to bring in new voice to oversee the team’s offense.
10:15am: Blue Jays team president Mark Shapiro is currently meeting with the media on the heels of a season he described as a “bitter disappointment” and announced that Ross Atkins will return as the team’s general manager for the 2025 season. “There won’t be a change with Ross,” said Shapiro. (Readers can watch the live press conference via Sportsnet.) The 2024 season was Atkins’ ninth season as Toronto’s general manager after spending 14 seasons as an integral part of Cleveland’s player development department. He signed a five-year contract extension covering the 2022-26 seasons back in April of 2021.
This past season was indeed a disaster for the Jays, who finished out the season at 74-88 — last place in the American League East. The Blue Jays made a spirited run at Shohei Ohtani in free agency last offseason but added primarily complementary pieces after he signed a ten-year deal with the Dodgers. The Toronto front office inked Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Yariel Rodriguez to multi-year contracts, also adding veterans Justin Turner and Kevin Kiermaier on one-year deals (Kiermaier’s second one-year pact with the Jays).
Depth proved to be an Achilles heel for the Jays as injuries mounted. Bo Bichette endured multiple IL stints and was limited to half a season’s worth of uncharacteristically feeble production at the plate. Alek Manoah underwent UCL surgery. Closer Jordan Romano pitched just 13 2/3 rough innings before undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery. Top prospects Orelvis Martinez (PED suspension) and Ricky Tiedemann (Tommy John surgery) had lost seasons. Meanwhile, key veterans like Kiermaier, George Springer, Danny Jansen, Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza and others turned in performances that were not commensurate with their prior standards. The Jays turned to a host of in-house stopgaps but, particularly in the bullpen, were unable to piece together a serviceable performance.
The end result saw Jansen, Kiner-Falefa, Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi Garcia and Nate Pearson all traded away in deadline swaps for younger talent. The Jays were universally praised for a strong return on Kikuchi, an impending free agent. However, that’s at best a silver lining when considering the team entered the 2024 campaign looking to build on last year’s Wild Card berth into the playoffs and was viewed as a legitimate contender in a deep AL East division.
Heading into the 2025 season, it’ll be incumbent upon Shapiro and Atkins to engineer an immediate turnaround, lest the calls for changes in leadership grow even louder. Asked about the club’s payroll outlook for the ’25 campaign, Shapiro demurred, calling it “early” to ask such a question and suggesting that next month’s GM Meetings or even December’s Winter Meetings would be a time at which he could offer a clearer answer. For now, the club’s president merely suggested he didn’t anticipate player payroll rising or decreasing in a significant manner.
If that’s indeed the case, Atkins will have his work cut out for him. The Jays entered the 2024 season with a club-record $225MM Opening Day payroll. RosterResource currently pegs them for just shy of $125MM in 2025 commitments, not including an arbitration class projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to cost more than $61MM in total. Add in a slate of league-minimum players to round out the roster, and the Jays are at just over $194MM. There are some likely non-tenders in this offseason’s class of arbitration-eligible players, but the group is headlined by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his projected $29.6MM salary, with notable paydays projected for Romano ($7.75MM), Daulton Varsho ($7.7MM) and Alejandro Kirk ($4.1MM) as well.
Asked multiple times about Guerrero’s future, Shapiro generally sidestepped the question. The slugger is entering his final season of club control before potentially becoming one of the most coveted free agents in recent memory. Manager John Schneider recently touted Guerrero as a generational talent. Asked today whether he agreed with that assessment, Shapiro questioned the definition of what constitutes a generational player and suggested that it’s tough to say right now, noting that Guerrero has the “potential” to become such a player but implying that such a label can’t be placed on him this early in his career.
Atkins spoke more directly on the matter of Guerrero’s future, suggesting that ownership will provide the support to make long-term commitments to both Guerrero and Bichette. That doesn’t guarantee an extension for either player will happen, of course, and Atkins noted that it’s “difficult” to construct a contract of such magnitude for even one player — let alone two players. Still, he voiced confidence that the Jays can support long-term deals for both and still have the resources needed to build a competitive roster around what would presumably be a pair of substantial contracts.
With regard to the forthcoming offseason, Atkins spoke generally about the need to be “more aggressive” with external additions to the roster than the Blue Jays were this past offseason, specifically in the bullpen. He also called adding a power bat “low-hanging fruit” but also noted that it’s not as simple as adding a pure slugger, citing a need to look at contact ability, on-base skills, and strengths against specific pitch types.
Asked whether the aforementioned Rodriguez and Bowden Francis have pitched well enough to solidify their spots in the rotation next season, Atkins praised both pitchers for the job they did in the season’s second half. The Jays will be in the market for both depth and “impact” starting pitching, per Atkins, but with Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, Rodriguez and Francis all in the fold, the GM said he feels fortunate to not feel a dire need to be in the market for a top free-agent starter.
The manner in which the Jays will pursue upgrades was left fairly open-ended. Both Atkins and Shapiro spoke favorably of the 13 young players Toronto acquired at this season’s trade deadline. Atkins acknowledged that while many of those players are viewed as potential near-term contributors, that influx of talent into the system also opens the door for potential trades involving some of those same prospects. The Blue Jays will explore both the free agent and trade markets as they look to revamp the roster, but it’s clear from both men’s comments today that the club does not plan to take any kind of step back and will endeavor to put a playoff contender on the field next year. That much has been reported at various points since the deadline, but today’s on-record commitment to such an approach from the team’s top two decision-makers is nevertheless notable.
drew ford
Then I will once again, not be purchasing any tickets
mark j
Shapiro and Atkins need to go. Nine years is enough.
bigdaddyt
But but but but they fired the hitting coach he was the problem all along. Not the god awful roster put around Vlad and a strong 4 man pitching staff
MysteryWhiteBoy13
Last year I was in Philly for a vacation at the start of the season, by the time I got back to Toronto, they were already something like 1 and 9. I was done at that point, and am already done with next season
jaysfansince1977
Sorry Mystery, Jays started the 1st 10 games of the 2024 season at 4-6 not 1-9
MysteryWhiteBoy13
Must have been the fact they gave up 8 or more runs a game in 5 of the first 10 games that turned me off. Who can honestly remember the reason the Jays were so horrible to start the year
jaysfansince1977
They were 15-16 to end April, had split with the Rays and won a series vs the Yankees, Mariners and Padres. After the 1st 4 game the run differential was 20 for-17 against, then they lost 10-0 in the 5th game, they went on to struggle in May but please they were not horrible in March/April
MysteryWhiteBoy13
Which makes there end of season record even more embarrassing.
Giving up 8 runs per game in more than half the games played to start a season is what i call horrible. Also, the fact they were 30 – 17 run differential after 5 games, is more proof they were straight up bad
JoeBrady
Meh, that feels like a loser mentality. The BJ averaged almost 91 wins in the 3 previous season. If you aren’t going to stick it out when they have a bad year, you will never enjoy it when they have a good year.
MysteryWhiteBoy13
I don’t take those years seriously as the Jays being real contenders. The Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles were all pretty bad to average for those years, and the Jays made it into an extended wildcard every time.
Squeaking in and getting swept isn’t proof of any kind of sustainability. All while spending into the luxury tax to make it happen.
I’m certain most of us fans could build a wildcard contending team with a plus 200 million salary, while not overpaying for guys like Falefa, Varsho and Springer
NYCityRiddler
That’s beautiful baby, beautiful! I’m sure things will turn around for them in 25. Ahahahaha!
sacko
Big mistake
johns-11
BRUTAL
Jimmy Chop
Popcorn almost ready for this bevy of comments.
Goodness. Atkins and Shapiro need to go.
And this is coming from an O’s fan.
SweetBabyRayKingsThickThighs
This is not what I wanted to hear today
getrealgone2
Jobber gonna job
BaseballBrian
In the immortal word(s) of Homer Simpson:
DOH!
Geebs
I have a boss to lie to me, I don’t need these clowns doing it.
30 Parks
Toronto sports teams love ‘running it back.’ Mistake – time to move on.
yeasties
who wins a championship first, the Jays or the Leafs?
MoneyBallJustWorks
the Leafs, they have at least been open to managerial and coaching changes. the Jays are just stuck in a loop. not getting better and seeing those in the division improve.
it would be one thing if the Jays could say they had a decent farm system, but that’s not the case. they can’t build through FA, they aren’t building through the draft. it’s a BAD situation.
30 Parks
Money – good points. Jays had such positive momentum as recent as a couple years ago, but the front office left that momentum unattended.
Dustyslambchops23
The raptors will win again before both of them
Slider_withcheese
Leafs. This year.
30 Parks
I appreciate your optimism, Slider.
30 Parks
Yeasties – the Argonauts!
scissormetimbers
They’re buddies, Shapiro will never fire him. Sounds like Rogers needs to step in and get rid of Shapiro.
Darthyen
So more of the same next year.
scissormetimbers
They probably announce a contract extension next year
Warden of the North(acoss13)
Well, Vladdy’s and Bo’s team control are slipping further away, and I don’t think next season will be any different, what a waste…
MysteryWhiteBoy13
Zero accountability with this organization. Schneider should have been fired last off season after making a horrible decision in the playoffs, and most definitely should have been relieved after this train wreck.
Atkins hasn’t done anything based on his original screed of building a sustainable winner. This seasons record and the horrible minor league system he built should both be fireable offences.
I had no issue with Shapiro as President until now, getting Rogers to spend at the Skydome and to build a state of the art training facility were great moves, but not having the balls to show some accountability when this GM has proven that he isn’t up to the task to do the things he said he would do is getting silly, and pretending like there isn’t a better alternative to Atkins is ludicrous
njbirdsfan
Just to make sure I follow…
The Jays finished with a worse record than the Pirates, with a much bigger payroll…
But the only articles calling out front office are the Pirates for not paying a bonus for underperforming players. Hmm.
BaseballisLife
Let the crying begin.
Poppin' Balls
…and they will not return to the playoffs.
CTS4
Hey shapiro , why do you keep spewing lies and talking in circles ??
atkins has to be FIRED ….your lackie GM is useless and lies almost as much as You….
Disgusting !!
mark j
Ai Ross is computing out answers now.
bestone
Was that a live press conference or a rerun from last year?
bestone
“Now” is the time. Please get a new front office in before the December meetings….and get Vladdy set up to be “the guy”.
Can’t wait to see what the press has to say…(and not the ones affiliated with Rogers).
mark j
Even the Rogers ones have had enough.
Dustyslambchops23
I’ve defended Shapiro because of the way he’s managed to get money for the payroll and stadium. He’s done an amazing job getting what the team needs from Rogers.
That at being said his blind loyalty is his Achilles heal, and if he can’t fire Atkins then he needs to go to. I’m glad I didn’t renew my seasons, I’ve had enough of Atkins and his inability to fix the problems that everyone else sees are with this team.
Arte Moreno
Waiting for the Diddy list to drop, maybe they’re both on there
mark j
“continuing contributions from the farm system”. lol
Ronk325
This is great news for fans of the other AL East teams
Old York
Good. This benefits real teams like the Yankees and Rays, along with Mickey Mouse teams like Baltimore & Boston.
Sk8
Bad news
Jays_Jen
It seems like many teams fire the right people at the right times, and not all are necessarily afraid to do it when necessary. The Blue Jays accept mediocrity, as has been demonstrated over the past 9 years. It’s going to be a very long 2025. It’s a slap in the face to the players and the fans. Rogers needs to get it together. Good luck trying to attract decent free agents. What a debacle.
jimmertee
The Toronto BlueJays would make a good reality show situation comedy.
Is it time for Jays fans to cancel all Rogers cell and TV and data contracts as a sign of objection to Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins continued employment?
Edward Rogers Jr are you listening?
bestone
Almost would love to see Vladdy and Bo on another team just to see them “take it” to Shatkins. The Dodgers’ won their 11th NL West title in 12 seasons. (10 without Otani). They had injuries, and yet they had enough to fill in when needed. Teoscar (who was traded away because..?) finished with 33? HR this year?….
I gave up watching games half way through this past season, and gained a ton of time and found other things to do. One more lost fan.