With all the recent uproar over the news that Ross Atkins is staying on as the Blue Jays general manager, a notable day in the organization’s history came into focus and celebrated its 15th anniversary in a timely (or untimely) fashion, depending on who you ask.

Per Canadian Baseball Network editor and journalist Kevin Glew (who you should follow for tons of Blue Jays history and his newsletter), 15 years ago to the day, the Blue Jays organization fired general manager J.P. Ricciardi and replaced him with Canadian executive Alex Anthopoulos.

After playing in the Mets minor league system for a few years, Ricciardi worked on the field as a coach and later became a scout for the Oakland A’s in 1986. He rose through the rankings and later became the director of player personnel under Billy Beane in the late 1990s.

After the firing of Gord Ash following the 2001 season, Ricciardi was hired by the Blue Jays to take over the general manager role. The Massachusetts product stayed on with the club through eight seasons and the Jays never made it into the postseason under his watch, with their best record coming in 2006 when they went 87-75 and finished second in the division.

Throughout his tenure, Ricciardi made many small deals on free agents but the club drafted well, taking players such as Aaron Hill, Adam Lind, Ricky Romero, Brett Cecil, Shaun Marcum, Casey Janssen, Eric Thames, and J.P. Arencibia amongst others.

The biggest knock on Ricciardi was some of the high-valued contracts he dished out, such as the seven-year $126 million extension to Vernon Wells and the five-year, $47 million to free agent closer B.J. Ryan. Neither player lived up to the expectations of the deal and there are a few other names that could be thrown in the mix.

To replace Ricciardi, the club replaced him with an internal hire in Alex Anthopoulos. The Montreal, Que. product kept working his way up the ladder and eventually became assistant general manager to Ricciardi in 2005 before being promoted to general manager following Riccardi’s dismissal.

Anthopoulos was the general manager of the Jays until the end of the 2015 season when he departed the organization after forming a roster that made the postseason for the first time since 1993. Atkins was hired to replace Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays have not won a postseason game since 2016.