TORONTO — Following a frustrating Blue Jays season in which the club underwhelmed offensively and was roundly swept out of the postseason in the Wild Card round, team president and CEO Mark Shapiro promised the front office would undergo a “painstaking process” this offseason to dissect what went wrong and how to get better in pursuit of a World Series title.
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In a press conference Thursday at the Rogers Centre, Shapiro spoke about some of the issues that led to the Blue Jays’ disappointing year, namely an inability to score runs and a lack of transparency about game planning with players. Shapiro also acknowledged the team did not meet expectations and let down the fans.
“I understand the frustration,” Shapiro said. “The bitterness is palpable for me and for the other leaders in the organization.”
Included in those leaders is general manager Ross Atkins, who Shapiro confirmed will return next season despite a tumultuous week for the GM. Atkins took some heat after comments during his postmortem press conference last weekend seemed to place the onus on manager John Schneider for making the controversial decision to pull starter José Berríos after three innings in exchange for Yusei Kikuchi in their Game 2 loss to the Minnesota Twins in the Wild Card Series.
“When evaluating, you’re not evaluating on a series or even a season, and in Ross’s case, the body of work to me is undeniable,” Shapiro said in explaining his decision to retain Atkins.
Here are more takeaways from Shapiro’s comments:
On the fallout from Game 2’s pitching decision
More than a week later, the decision to pull Berríos for Kikuchi and the fallout from it remains a touchpoint for the Toronto fan base. During Atkins’ postmortem press conference last weekend, the GM let it be known that the decision to pull Berríos in the fourth inning was made by Schneider, not by the front office or Atkins, specifically. That Atkins did not own the decision as an organizational one created at least the perception of awkwardness between two of the team’s key decision-makers, but Shapiro said there were no uneasy feelings between the GM and manager.
“There’s no awkwardness between the two because I’ve been involved in enough conversations with them over the last couple of days,” Shapiro said.
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As for whether Atkins should have taken a different approach with the media when addressing the pitching decision, Shapiro said, the club is never looking to assign blame.
“When something goes wrong, accountability lies at the top, it lies with me,” he said. “We’re not looking to say that John Schneider made a mistake or Ross made a mistake or who made the mistake. We made a mistake. It didn’t work and we need to learn and get better from it. But we need to be OK making mistakes. I’m more than confident in John Schneider’s ability to manage a Major League Baseball game. And I’m more than confident in Ross’s ability to run a baseball operation. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t need to get better; it doesn’t mean we didn’t make mistakes.”
Asked about what he thought when Kikuchi came into the game for Berríos, Shapiro said, “I knew the game plan. I knew the purpose behind it. I was aware of it and knew that the goal was to bring Kikuchi in to turn over the lineup and get some of their left-handed hitters out of the lineup for better matchups later in the game, which actually worked, but I didn’t know when it would happen. I found out at the same moment in time when John walked to the mound.”
On what went wrong
When dissecting what went wrong this year, Shapiro pointed to a few key factors, including the inability to score runs consistently, poor execution on the basepaths and the need for a higher level of transparency and communication with players in their game planning process and preparation. The team president said the process to examine what led to these issues and how to fix them has already begun.
“It’s a deep dive into the season, it’s a deep look at each individual player and the collective and our process that we go through as a staff every day,” Shapiro said. “(We’re) looking for every opportunity to get incrementally better in a number of areas.”
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After the Game 2 loss, there was a disconnect. Some players did not understand the decision to go from Berríos to Kikuchi so early in the game. On the need for clearer communication with players, Shapiro said that recent conversations Atkins has had with players led them to believe they needed to do a better job of communicating plans and processes and the reasoning behind them.
“What has come to light is both from the information and the planning — by the way, which was designed by and led by John Schneider — but we have to be more clear with our players, more transparent, do a better job of communicating what that process is. Then most importantly, there’s a line of demarcation when it comes into the game, that the decisions lie with our staff and with John,” Shapiro said.
On fixing the offence
Per their .745 OPS, the Blue Jays ranked 11th in the majors, just above the middle of the pack. But their 4.6 average runs per game ranked 14th and was just below the MLB average of 4.62. Driving in runs on a consistent basis was the primary issue for the lineup, including in their Wild Card Series loss, in which they scored just one run and had one extra-base hit in 18 innings. The Blue Jays tried to find an answer for their run-scoring woes in-season, Shapiro said, but to no avail. Asked if their offensive problems were philosophical or personnel-related, Shapiro said they’re still trying to uncover that.
“You can talk about approach, you can talk about in-game execution, or you can talk about players. Certainly, there were players that fell short…We had three or four players that fell significantly short of what we projected,” Shapiro said.
The Blue Jays also only hit 188 home runs, 16th-most, and their power outage was one of the more curious developments of the season — especially considering some of the names in their lineup.
“There are multiple ways to score. I don’t want to pin that just to power. We need to score more. That’s the fact. We hit, but we didn’t score. It was an odd dynamic,” Shapiro said. “I think that’s what Ross referred to, that he kept thinking that it would change. That’s because, logically, statistically, if you’re impacting the baseball hard, if you’re getting hits, sooner or later, you think you will score. That’s what the game tells you historically, but it didn’t happen.
“We need to spend the time to figure out why — why didn’t that happen? Is there something that we need to think about doing differently in our game preparation individually with the players? Is there something personnel-wise? Those are the questions that will need to be addressed over the coming weeks.”
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On Atkins’ performance as GM
In running a professional sports organization, Shapiro places a high value on continuity and stability. It’s one of the reasons Atkins will return as GM next season for his ninth year leading the club. Shapiro pointed to four postseason trips during Atkins’ tenure as GM. He also cited impactful free agent signings and trades, transitioning the club from a rebuilder to a contender in four years and key personnel hirings as factors for viewing Atkins’ overall performance positively. It should be noted that while the offence was an issue, the Blue Jays had built one of the league’s best pitching staffs this season.
“We need to get better; Ross needs to get better, but he’s done a good job and put us in a good position next year to be a very good team and certainly deserves that opportunity to continue to lead the baseball organization,” Shapiro said.
When asked about the mistakes Atkins has made during his time as GM, Shapiro said, “We all make mistakes.”
“No leader is expected to be perfect here,” Shapiro said. “I want people to feel like they’ve got the freedom to make mistakes as long as they learn from those mistakes. I think mistakes are an opportunity to grow, to learn, to develop and to get better for all of us in life.”
On fan frustration
The feelings of fan frustration, unrest and dissatisfaction this season were palpable as the Blue Jays grinded to their 89 wins during what felt like tense, low-scoring games on a nightly basis. Had the pitching staff not been so brilliant, the season could’ve been a lot worse.
Shapiro, who has been involved in professional baseball for 32 years, said he couldn’t “remember a season that felt like it was more of an effort.”
While Shapiro acknowledged that the team ultimately let down the fan base, which he called among the best in MLB, he said he still took positives away from winning 89 games and qualifying for the postseason.
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“There were six or seven other teams that had high expectations and high payrolls that didn’t even make the postseason, that didn’t win 89 games, some of the biggest markets in all of North America that went home and our guys, our players and our staff found a way to persevere,” he said. “I find some positive within that, but it was tough. It was frustrating.”
But with more stadium renovations and the recent increase in ticket prices, there comes an expectation to field a competitive team. Shapiro said there are no plans to go into rebuild mode next year. While he wouldn’t specify a win total they’re aiming for in future seasons, he did say, “We need to get deeper into October for sure. And ultimately we’re never going to be satisfied until we win the last game played in a major-league season.”
On the 2024 payroll
This season, the Blue Jays’ payroll was north of $200 million, and the club paid the competitive balance tax for the first time in franchise history. While Shapiro said he’s only had preliminary discussions with ownership about the budget for 2024, he said he doesn’t expect “a dramatic philosophical shift in payroll next year. I expect us to stay in the same area and we can support that for now.”
(Top photo of Shapiro: Cole Burston / Getty Images)