While it wasn’t confirmed until Tuesday, the writing seemed to be on the wall that Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins would return to his position for another go-around next year. With the duo of Atkins and Mark Shapiro at the helm since late 2015, it was news that Jays fans were not particularly thrilled with on social media.

After limping to a basement finish in the AL East and boasting the fifth-best odds at the first overall pick next season, it was a far cry from the expectations set for this club heading into the year. This was after what many describe as a disappointing offseason, with the Jays missing out on Shohei Ohtani (and the whole plane debacle) and pivoting to veteran players in Justin Turner, Kevin Kiermaier, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa to fill in the void. The Yariel Rodríguez contract shows a lot of promise, one of the better signings this winter, but the expectation was the club would be buying at the deadline for a playoff push instead of selling for prospect capital and instead of losing in the Wild Card rounds, the Jays don’t even get invited to the dance.

This seems to be the biggest sticking point for Jays fans. After enduring the rebuilding years following their arrival and watching a core team struggle to win in October, it seemed like the time for change was at an all-time high, yet Shapiro couldn’t pull the trigger. It’s a tough narrative to get behind for those who follow the Jays, as the lack of success in the postseason is starting to feel like the early 2000-2010 period all over again. The club hasn’t won in the playoffs since 2016, with a squad that Atkins inherited mostly from Alex Anthopoulos, who continues to find success in Atlanta since his departure and adds only more fuel to the fire that is calling for the firing of Atkins and Shapiro.

If you look at the bigger picture, there are some wins amidst the losses. While it is easy to blame this front office for a lot of shortcomings, there have been some strong moves and decisions over the years.

One of the first ones was acquiring Teoscar Hernández from the Houston Astros in 2017, an absolute fleece job for half a season of Francisco Liriano. Hernández was looking for more playing time and found a rhythm in Toronto, a similar story that has followed the likes of those who set the table before him, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Atkins and co. also fared well in José Berríos and Matt Chapman deals, respectively, with both players becoming key contributors for this squad, and so much so that Berríos inked a long-term deal to stay past his free agent years – another win in the Atkins book for those keeping track at home. Although they put themselves in the situation to sell this trade deadline, the returns were strong for what the club had to offer in Turner, Kiermaier, Yusei Kikuchi, and the others.

The club has also signed premier players like fans have never seen before — Hyun Jin Ryu, George Springer, Kevin Gausman, Marcus Semien, and Chris Bassitt all joined the team in free agency. All of them chose to join Toronto when players normally weren’t keen on taking or keeping their talents North of the border unless the organization developed them, had Canadian ties (Russell Martin), or were in the later stages of their careers (Jose Canseco and Frank Thomas, anyone?).

It was a change of pace from the norm fans were used to seeing from free agents signing with the club. That, combined with a homegrown core of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and Danny Jansen, made three playoff appearances over the past five years, which is three more than the club had from 1994 to 2014.

With these wins, however, come the losses for which Atkins has to shoulder the blame.

The general manager has had his fair share of losing deals. Gambling on Josh Donaldson and trading him for pennies on the dollar at the 2018 trade deadline was a mark in the ‘loss’ column, and the sell-off of veterans didn’t net the biggest of returns, although the moves were more financially motivated versus premier prospect return. One could argue that the club could have maybe squeezed a bit more for Marcus Stroman at the 2019 trade deadline. Dealing Nick Frasso for Mitch White was reactionary and could come back to bite them if the right-hander could stay healthy in the Dodgers organization. And the all-time favourite for fans lately is the Gabriel Moreno/Daulton Varsho deal made two winters ago, although this is a debatable topic depending on who you ask amongst the fanbase, given Varsho’s elite defence.

The club also has struggled to turn prospects into big-league talent over the past five years, which is the result of a multitude of reasons. Some of the blame can be put on top prospects not panning out, whether it be due to performance or injury. This happens all the time in baseball but feels a bit more potent with Toronto and their lack of another prospect with the hype of someone like Guerrero Jr. or Bichette being able to crack the roster as of late. Another reason is that the Jays depleted some of the top prospects for veteran talent — Austin Martin, Gunnar Hoglund, Simeon Woods-Richardson, and Jordan Groshans, to name a few — and the lack of postseason success means there hasn’t been a ton to show for it outside of the Berríos extension (in terms of giving of prospect control for a veteran player sticking around). It’s been a while since the Jays have churned out a top rotation arm outside of Manoah, who has struggled over the past two seasons and is on the IL for most of 2025.

Finally, the lack of movement last offseason to improve the offence after the club ranked in either the middle of the pack or towards the bottom half of the league in 2023 and entrusting a rebound from the group (plus the few additions) was a gamble that didn’t pay off. Coupled with an absolute disaster of a bullpen this year, it was a season to forget for a front office that was hoping for a team to bounce back from the ‘blip’ last campaign.

It’s fair to say that not many expected the bullpen to implode as badly as they did, or the team would have some of their star players like Bichette and Springer struggle as mightily as they did. It’s also fair to say that the front office did at least try to field a competitive team in some aspects and pivoted once those aspirations fell short, throwing in the towel at the deadline for prospect capital that made the farm system better. They continue to push the franchise’s historical boundaries of payroll commitment to put a winning team on the field.

However, it does not make Atkins and the front office immune from the criticism that follows when expectations fall short, especially since this was the direction they decided to go down. The club’s offence didn’t bounce back this season outside of Guerrero Jr. and some emerging prospects. Two of their biggest stars remain without contract extensions. The farm system isn’t a powerhouse as many predicted based on the words of Atkins and Shapiro when they arrived. The core group that was built on the back of a painstaking rebuild has not yielded a win in the postseason. These, coupled with the code wording that is an Atkins presser, have fans feeling frosty and heading into what is likely to be one of the most important offseasons this club has seen in quite some time. At a certain point, Mark Shapiro needs to stop saying, “Ross needs to do better,” and find someone who is going to do better.

At the end of the day, the chips have already fallen and Atkins is the captain of this ship this winter — whether fans like it or not.

The general manager could easily turn things around with a stellar offseason, starting with a Guerrero Jr. extension and some free agent splashes (even if it isn’t Juan Soto) that help provide some more direction for this club beyond 2025. Outside of that, if there is a repeat of the 2023/2024 offseason this time around, there might be a riot at the gates of the Rogers Centre come April – one that will just draw even more ire from a fanbase that just wants to see a win in October.