This is what should happen Monday morning and won’t.
Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers, the owner nobody knows or sees, should meet with team president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins, shake their hands and thank them for their services.
And then say goodbye.
Just like that.
They have had enough time to accomplish this little. Nine years is long enough for any mandate in professional sport to get it right. Nine years is a generous sporting lifetime for executives who have won next to nothing.
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Shapiro carries the title of team president. Some in baseball think his title should read president and general manager. He is involved in every decision the Blue Jays make. This is his team. This is his failure.
Atkins carries the title of general manager. Normally, that would put him in charge of just about everything that is baseball. He is in charge of everything baseball that Shapiro can wash his hands of when necessary.
When Shapiro chose to leave the Cleveland Guardians (then Indians) to join the Blue Jays just before the end of the 2015 season, 10 seasons back, he took the job, he told people, because he was tired of being in low-budget, small-market Cleveland, tired of being pushed out of the baseball operations, tired of being in charge of club business.
He wanted more baseball involvement, more money to spend and he supposedly got all that agreeing to come to the Jays.
He was around, although not officially, when the 2015 Blue Jays went to the American League Championship Series and should have gone to the World Series in their best season since the World Series years. He was around long enough just after that to scare Alex Anthopoulous into leaving the Jays, all the while knowing he, Shapiro, didn’t want to work with Anthopoulos philosophically or in any other way.
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Shapiro all but pushed Anthopoulos out of the job. And this is one of the few instances when owner Rogers briefly got involved. Rogers didn’t want to lose Anthopoulos, primarily because his friends told him that. But as owner, Rogers had never met his general manager, if you can believe that, which tells you all you need to know about Rogers as a sports owner.
He then stepped up and surprisingly offered the man he’d never met before huge money and huge term to stay in Toronto.
Anthopoulos couldn’t take the money knowing he couldn’t or wouldn’t work with Shapiro. He eventually made his way to Atlanta, where he runs the model franchise known as the Braves.
And the Blue Jays continue to search for some kind of identity other than having an avid fan base, dumb enough to still do the wave, good enough for fourth best in numbers in the American League.
The fans are fourth best. In reality, probably better than that. The team is 12th best in a league that has the White Sox and A’s. The Jays can’t hit, can’t pitch, which isn’t a great combination. The fans deserve better.
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When Anthopoulos chose to leave in 2015, Atkins eventually emerged as general manager. Emerging is probably the wrong way of describing how Atkins operates the team. He is apparently the baseball eyes and ears of the Blue Jays, but some might refer to him as rather myopic and possibly hearing impaired.
Atkins is a glass-half-full kind of executive, which is nice if you’re teaching grade school. He believes a little bit like that old Dave Stieb book: Tomorrow I’ll Be Perfect. But so far the Jays and their fan base are waiting for tomorrow. And with Atkins and Shapiro, that wait will continue.
In each of the past four seasons, all those without playoff wins of any kind, like not even one game, the Jays have dropped from 262 home runs, the most in baseball, to 200 to 188 to 156 this year. Home runs matter more in baseball than ever before, yet the Atkins Jays have performed like a bad stock in recent years.
The team batting average has dropped from a second-place .266 in 2021 to .264 to .256 to .241. Runs scored have plummeted from 846 to 671 over four years.
What’s gotten better with the Blue Jays?
Long term only, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has elevated his game — and he was a present left behind by, you guessed it, Anthopoulos.
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In fairness to Shapiro, the stadium is nice. He played a large part in that. The Tuesday $1 hotdogs are fun. So if you need to renovate your home or have friends over for a barbecue, better call Shapiro. If you need outfielders who can hit, better call Saul or somebody else. The Jays have $30 million invested in George Springer and Daulton Varsho and next year that number goes up — with a combined on-base percentage of less than .300.
A lot of money for very little production. And now this Jays team, no matter who is in charge, needs a minimum two bats, a starter at first base, third base or designated hitter, depending on what they do with Guerrero. A starting outfielder. A second baseman. At least one starting pitcher and probably four to five relief pitchers. That’s not counting a second catcher or depth on the bench.
That’s about eight or nine bodies of consequence needed. Should Rogers trust that Shapiro and Atkins are up to that task? Based on what? Or are the only numbers Eddie cares about the attendance figures and television ratings on Rogers Sportsnet?
There’s no reason to believe Shapiro and Atkins can solve these problems, make this team better, do what they haven’t been able to accomplish the past nine season. The time to say goodbye is Monday morning.
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