TORONTO — The last time Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro addressed the media, in March before the season, he expressed optimism for a bounce-back from the team’s core, whom he believed were ready to take the next step and lead a legitimate championship contender.
Four and a half months later, Shapiro addressed the media again and expressed how “bitterly disappointing” the Blue Jays’ last-place performance has been this season.
“In the nine seasons I’ve been through, this is the biggest disconnect from expectations,” Shapiro said, standing in front of the home dugout. “It doesn’t mean we haven’t had difficult endings to seasons. That doesn’t mean we haven’t had seasons where we knew we were going to have a challenge competing, but this has been by far the biggest disconnect in our expectations and the biggest disappointment.”
During his 17-minute availability on Wednesday, Shapiro addressed several topics. Along with what went wrong this season, Shapiro left the door open for Ross Atkins to return as the club’s general manager next season, he spoke about the club’s intention to compete in 2025 and gave an outlook on payroll moving forward.
Here are key takeaways from Shapiro’s session with the media.
On the disappointment of the 2024 season
Shapiro identified the bullpen as “an Achilles (heel) for us all year” and the main culprit for why the club fell short of expectations, citing injuries and underperformance from core back-end relievers.
Closer Jordan Romano’s season has been significantly impacted by injuries. (Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
The slumping offence and several regulars such as George Springer, Bo Bichette and Alejandro Kirk not having “carrying levels of performance” as they had projected was another reason the club underachieved.
Shapiro said now that the trade deadline has come and gone, the Blue Jays are focused on learning what went wrong and how to improve.
“We need to learn. We need to get better,” Shapiro said. “I think the trade deadline was the start of that, making sure we get better from challenges, adversity and disappointment, but that has to happen in the way we put the team together for next year.”
On the job status of GM Ross Atkins and the coaching staff
With the trade deadline over, a central question hanging over the Blue Jays, especially with an increasingly frustrated fan base, is whether Atkins will return as GM next season.
When asked directly if Atkins, under contract through 2026, would be back, Shapiro started by saying, “I very rarely am unequivocal about anything. Commenting on job status during the season, throughout my entire career, when I’ve been asked about those things, is not something I have or will ever do.”
“That being said, contextually, I’m a huge believer in stability and continuity, and that those are competitive advantages in professional sports, that reacting and change don’t necessarily mean improvement,” he continued. “We need to be better. We have to be better. And, again, I think stability and continuity and making adjustments are where I’m focused right now.”
It’s an answer that both suggests he doesn’t necessarily believe a GM change is the solution to the team’s problems, but isn’t an emphatic vote of confidence in Atkins either, leaving wiggle room for Shapiro to decide on Atkins’ future one way or another when the season concludes.
When pressed further on how to weigh the benefits of stability versus making a change to shift the club in a different direction, Shapiro said, “If you’re certain you can be better, you make a change,” but he didn’t detail how he would come to that conclusion.
As for the performance of manager John Schneider and the coaching staff, Shapiro said he would leave it to Atkins to comment on specifics but did say he was pleased with how the coaching staff has remained “solution-focused.”
“There’s been no finger-pointing, no blaming,” Shapiro said. “They’ve stayed consistent. They’ve stayed determined to get better and find solutions and be a part of how we can continue to get better. They’ve been a source of strength throughout a very tough year, as have our players.”
On plans for 2025 and beyond
At the trade deadline, the Blue Jays could have had a complete sell-off, moving stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bichette and starters Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman to net a trove of prospects. While the Blue Jays did move a couple of players with team control remaining (Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Nate Pearson), they stuck mainly to moving players on expiring contracts, a decision that reinforced their commitment to contending next season and beyond.
“We believe that there’s enough talent in place to build a contending, championship-caliber team next year,” Shapiro said. “Had we not, we would have made a different set of decisions (at the deadline). That being said, that work will need to be done to both make sure we continue to develop the players here, identify players that could possibly contribute that are in our system that aren’t here, and understand what to expect from our veteran players, and then do a better job of putting all that together and supplementing externally. There’s a lot of work still to be done before we can make definitive statements about ’25 but that intent is clear.”
Perhaps avoiding “definitive statements” about next season gives Shapiro the leeway to change course if the offseason doesn’t develop how they hope it will. Running it back for a third time with largely the same team cannot be the solution. This club has been declining the last three seasons, going from 92 wins in 2022 to 89 wins in 2023 to being on pace for 75 wins this season. Substantial changes are needed, including rebuilding the bullpen, adding a starter or two and overhauling the lineup.
That said, Shapiro suggested the team believes “there’s enough talent in place, in our system, on our team and accessible to us elsewhere to put that type of (championship) core together.”
In terms of how they can build a better team, Shapiro said he thinks the organization has done a good job “identifying talent individually,” but “we have not done as good a job collectively placing that talent and a roster together to win.” He said discussions on next year have focussed on roster construction, handedness and balancing offence and defence, although they’ll be able to say more definitively what the team needs moving forward once the season concludes.
The next eight weeks will be about evaluating what they can expect from their veterans and young players next year and assessing the new players in the organization.
“Those three things combined with learning from the mistakes that we made this year, and ensuring that as we blend that talent with any talent we acquire externally, we do a better job,” Shapiro said.
As for the possibility of signing Guerrero and Bichette, who are free agents after next season, to long-term extensions, Shapiro would only say, “It’s certainly easier to build a sustainable championship team with talent like that in place for extended periods of time.”
On payroll now and moving forward
As the Blue Jays moved players off their MLB roster at the trade deadline, getting under the Competitive Balance Tax was a secondary concern.
“The primary concern and the relentless focus was infusing talent into our system. The CBT was something that we were cognizant of because of the baseball benefits — the draft picks, where we pick, but not something we were focused on,” the club president said.
Shapiro confirmed the Blue Jays are currently slightly under the $237-million CBT threshold, but noted the number is “fluid” based on roster fluctuations during the season.
“Whether we’re under it at this moment or not, which we are very slightly, those things can change throughout the rest of the year,” he said.
In recent years, the Blue Jays have set franchise records for payroll spending. In terms of their budget for next season, Shapiro said they don’t “commit payroll in August” but that, “I would not characterize there being any large scale pullback on payroll.”
Their on-field performance, however, has impacted their bottom line this year, Shapiro confirmed, saying, “When you lose, your sales are impacted.”
That said, lower ticket sales will have a “very marginal impact, if any,” on baseball decisions, Shapiro said, but, “there’s a direct correlation between winning and fans coming to the ballpark, so we need to win.”
As for if the Blue Jays need to make a big splash early in the offseason to appease a disgruntled fan base, Shapiro said, “It’s important to get better and win.”
(Top photo of Shapiro: Tom Szczerbowski / Getty Images)
