As the heat picks up in the rumour mill, so does it on the Toronto Blue Jays front office.

With the team fresh out of the All-Star Break and hosting the Detroit Tigers with scouts in the stands, they sputtered to a 5-4 loss.

And at one point, Blue Jays fans broke out in a ‘Fire Atkins’ chant, jeering against general manager Ross Atkins.

He’s taken growing amounts of heat in recent years as the club has fallen in each of the last two wild card rounds with not a single win to show for it. But Friday’s game took it to another level as a typically mute fanbase made their voices heard.

Atkins has been the club’s general manager since he and Mark Shapiro arrived in town in 2015. They re-tooled the Jays in 2016, taking them to the ALCS where they lost to Cleveland. Despite winning four post-season games that year, the Jays have gone 0-6 in the playoff since.

The pair are still at the helm of the franchise heading into July 30th’s MLB trade deadline, but the fan bases optimism in them being the ones to quote-unquote “fix this team” has dwindled in recent years. While the Jays have one of the largest payrolls in baseball, Atkins has struggled to find the right mix of players, always seeming to fall short in one area or another.

It’s not to say that there’s any general manager who is perfect in terms of roster construction, but Atkins has long had issues with taking care of things the way they’ve needed to. The club, for example, has struggled to replace the offence of Teoscar Hernandez in recent years, no matter how much defensive value the likes of Daulton Varsho and Kevin Kiermaier have brought forth.

The Jays will surely look to be active ahead of the trade deadline, with multiple free agents likely drawing interest.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.