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Blue Jays extend skipper John Schneider and general manager Ross Atkins
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Mar 23, 2026, 09:15 EDTUpdated: Mar 23, 2026, 09:18 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays leadership will be set in stone for at least the next two seasons.
About a month and a half after the conclusion of the heartbreaking 2025 season, the Blue Jays announced that they had extended President Mark Shapiro’s contract for an additional five seasons. Well, the team announced on Monday morning that manager John Schneider has been extended until the end of the 2028 season, while general manager Ross Atkins has been extended until the end of the 2031 season.
A few days after the end of the World Series, the Jays activated Schneider’s 2026 team option, giving him another year at the helm of the team. The extension he signed on Monday solidifies his role as the skipper for three more seasons, and it’s hard to say he doesn’t deserve it.
Schneider has been in the Blue Jays’ organization since they drafted him in the 24th round of the 2001 draft. He never made the big leagues, retiring from play after the 2007 season, but joining the organization as a coach. He worked his way up the minor league ladder until becoming the team’s bench coach in 2022.
That season, Charlie Montoyo was fired after the Jays sat 46-42, with Schneider taking over as the interim coach in mid July. After taking over, the Jays went 46-28, finishing in the first wild card spot before collapsing to the Seattle Mariners in the Wild Card series. In 2023, the Jays finished 89-73, good enough to finish in the third wild card spot, where they were promptly swept.
The 2024 season was an off-year for the organization, as they went 74-88, giving them the worst record in the American League East. It’s a season where almost everything went wrong, from Bo Bichette’s injury, to George Springer’s decline, to missing out on Shohei Ohtani in the previous off-season.
Thankfully, the Jays rebounded in 2025, finishing first in the American League East thanks to a 94-68 record, earning the bye thanks to a tiebreaker over the New York Yankees. That was their American League Divisional Series opponent, and they flat out embarrassed their rival in the best-of-five series. They then got their revenge over the Mariners in the American League Championship Series, before falling to the Dodgers in heartbreaking fashion.
As for Atkins, he’s been the team’s general manager since the 2016 season. The 52-year-old has seen the team go from a contender, to a team in the mushy middle, to a rebuilding team, to a playoff team, and then a team two outs and a few inches away from their first World Series title since 1993.
As one can expect over a decade, Atkins has had his fair share of not-so-great trades, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a trade where he gave up a significant asset that came back to haunt the Jays. Even then, it’s hard to argue with on field results, as the team has made the playoffs numerous times under his leadership, started to sign top free agents, and had an incredibly short rebuild.
Hopefully, the Blue Jays can bring the World Series north of the border.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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