11:00am: Atkins revealed throughout his personal media availability that bench coach and offensive coordinator Don Mattingly will not oversee the group’s offense; he’ll fill a “extra conventional” bench coach position. Between the change in Mattingly’s position and the reported firing of hitting coach Guillermo Martinez — which Atkins confirmed — the group will conduct an exterior search to usher in new voice to supervise the group’s offense.
10:15am: Blue Jays group president Mark Shapiro is presently assembly with the media on the heels of a season he described as a “bitter disappointment” and introduced that Ross Atkins will return because the group’s common supervisor for the 2025 season. “There received’t be a change with Ross,” mentioned Shapiro. (Readers can watch the reside press convention through Sportsnet.) The 2024 season was Atkins’ ninth season as Toronto’s common supervisor after spending 14 seasons as an integral a part of Cleveland’s participant improvement division. He signed a five-year contract extension overlaying the 2022-26 seasons again in April of 2021.
This previous season was certainly a catastrophe for the Jays, who completed out the season at 74-88 — final place within the American League East. The Blue Jays made a spirited run at Shohei Ohtani in free company final offseason however added primarily complementary items after he signed a ten-year take care of the Dodgers. The Toronto entrance workplace inked Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Yariel Rodriguez to multi-year contracts, additionally including veterans Justin Turner and Kevin Kiermaier on one-year offers (Kiermaier’s second one-year pact with the Jays).
Depth proved to be an Achilles heel for the Jays as accidents mounted. Bo Bichette endured a number of IL stints and was restricted to half a season’s value of uncharacteristically feeble manufacturing on the plate. Alek Manoah underwent UCL surgical procedure. Nearer Jordan Romano pitched simply 13 2/3 tough innings earlier than present process arthroscopic elbow surgical procedure. High prospects Orelvis Martinez (PED suspension) and Ricky Tiedemann (Tommy John surgical procedure) had misplaced seasons. In the meantime, key veterans like Kiermaier, George Springer, Danny Jansen, Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza and others turned in performances that weren’t commensurate with their prior requirements. The Jays turned to a bunch of in-house stopgaps however, significantly within the bullpen, have been unable to piece collectively a serviceable efficiency.
The top consequence noticed Jansen, Kiner-Falefa, Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi Garcia and Nate Pearson all traded away in deadline swaps for youthful expertise. The Jays have been universally praised for a powerful return on Kikuchi, an impending free agent. Nonetheless, that’s at finest a silver lining when contemplating the group entered the 2024 marketing campaign trying to construct on final 12 months’s Wild Card berth into the playoffs and was seen as a official contender in a deep AL East division.
Heading into the 2025 season, it’ll be incumbent upon Shapiro and Atkins to engineer a right away turnaround, lest the requires modifications in management develop even louder. Requested in regards to the membership’s payroll outlook for the ’25 marketing campaign, Shapiro demurred, calling it “early” to ask such a query and suggesting that subsequent month’s GM Conferences and even December’s Winter Conferences could be a time at which he may supply a clearer reply. For now, the membership’s president merely urged he didn’t anticipate participant payroll rising or reducing in a big method.
If that’s certainly the case, Atkins could have his work lower out for him. The Jays entered the 2024 season with a club-record $225MM Opening Day payroll. RosterResource presently pegs them for simply shy of $125MM in 2025 commitments, not together with an arbitration class projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to price greater than $61MM in whole. Add in a slate of league-minimum gamers to spherical out the roster, and the Jays are at simply over $194MM. There are some possible non-tenders on this offseason’s class of arbitration-eligible gamers, however the group is headlined by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his projected $29.6MM wage, with notable paydays projected for Romano ($7.75MM), Daulton Varsho ($7.7MM) and Alejandro Kirk ($4.1MM) as effectively.
Requested a number of occasions about Guerrero’s future, Shapiro usually sidestepped the query. The slugger is coming into his remaining season of membership management earlier than doubtlessly turning into some of the coveted free brokers in latest reminiscence. Supervisor John Schneider just lately touted Guerrero as a generational expertise. Requested as we speak whether or not he agreed with that evaluation, Shapiro questioned the definition of what constitutes a generational participant and urged that it’s robust to say proper now, noting that Guerrero has the “potential” to develop into such a participant however implying that such a label can’t be positioned on him this early in his profession.
Atkins spoke extra instantly on the matter of Guerrero’s future, suggesting that possession will present the assist to make long-term commitments to each Guerrero and Bichette. That doesn’t assure an extension for both participant will occur, in fact, and Atkins famous that it’s “tough” to assemble a contract of such magnitude for even one participant — not to mention two gamers. Nonetheless, he voiced confidence that the Jays can assist long-term offers for each and nonetheless have the assets wanted to construct a aggressive roster round what would presumably be a pair of considerable contracts.
With regard to the forthcoming offseason, Atkins spoke usually in regards to the should be “extra aggressive” with exterior additions to the roster than the Blue Jays have been this previous offseason, particularly within the bullpen. He additionally known as including an influence bat “low-hanging fruit” but additionally famous that it’s not so simple as including a pure slugger, citing a necessity to have a look at contact skill, on-base expertise, and strengths in opposition to particular pitch varieties.
Requested whether or not the aforementioned Rodriguez and Bowden Francis have pitched effectively sufficient to solidify their spots within the rotation subsequent season, Atkins praised each pitchers for the job they did within the season’s second half. The Jays will likely be out there for each depth and “affect” beginning pitching, per Atkins, however with Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt, Rodriguez and Francis all within the fold, the GM mentioned he feels lucky to not really feel a dire should be out there for a prime free-agent starter.
The way by which the Jays will pursue upgrades was left pretty open-ended. Each Atkins and Shapiro spoke favorably of the 13 younger gamers Toronto acquired at this season’s commerce deadline. Atkins acknowledged that whereas lots of these gamers are seen as potential near-term contributors, that inflow of expertise into the system additionally opens the door for potential trades involving a few of those self same prospects. The Blue Jays will discover each the free agent and commerce markets as they give the impression of being to revamp the roster, however it’s clear from each males’s feedback as we speak that the membership doesn’t plan to take any form of step again and can endeavor to place a playoff contender on the sector subsequent 12 months. That a lot has been reported at varied factors because the deadline, however as we speak’s on-record dedication to such an strategy from the group’s prime two decision-makers is however notable.
