Ross Atkins to return as Blue Jays GM in 2025

Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro is backing general manager Ross Atkins.

Shapiro announced that Atkins will return next season after the Blue Jays missed the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

“There won’t be a change with Ross,” Shapiro said. “The reason for that is, you know, the process that I went through to consider whether or not there would be a change with his role was one of both considering alternatives and looking at the work that’s been done.”

Atkins has served as Toronto’s general manager since Dec. 3, 2015. In Atkins’ tenure, the Blue Jays have made the post-season four times, including three of the past five seasons.

However, the Blue Jays haven’t won a playoff game since 2016 and are coming off a disappointing campaign that saw them finish last in the AL East for the first time since 2013.

“Ross needs to be better, I need to be better, our entire baseball operations need to be better,” Shapiro said.

Atkins signed a five-year contract extension in 2021 that expires after the 2026 season.

After being swept out of the 2023 post-season by the Minnesota Twins, Toronto chased reigning MVP Shohei Ohtani, but came short of landing the Japanese superstar. From there, the Blue Jays signed the likes of Justin Turner, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Yariel Rodriguez.

Toronto entered the year with 49.0 per cent odds of making the playoffs, per FanGraphs and a 2.9 per cent chance of winning the World Series.

Of course, things didn’t materialize for the Blue Jays, who ended the 2024 season with 74 wins and ranked 23rd in baseball in runs scored (671), 14th in rotation ERA (3.95) and 29th in bullpen ERA (4.82).

The disappointing year resulted in a sell-off at the trade deadline, where Toronto dealt away pending free agents Yusei Kikuchi, Yimi García, Danny Jansen, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Justin Turner, Trevor Richards, Kevin Kiermaier and former top prospect Nate Pearson.

Even with the restocking of the minors, the Blue Jays’ farm system was still ranked 23rd in baseball after the deadline and draft by Baseball America.

“I also think about the fact that we played in the playoffs three of the past five years and that for the past five, we played meaningful games in September, that each of the past four, we left spring training objectively with a chance to be a contending and playoff team,” Shapiro later added. “And to me, that’s not grounds to make a change.

“If I felt there was a better alternative to run our baseball operations, I’d make that change.”