Shapiro addresses 'bitterly disappointing' Jays season

TORONTO — Mark Shapiro is making zero promises in August.

From the long-term direction of his Toronto Blue Jays to the group of men in the front office making the decisions, the president and CEO is only ready to echo the disappointment that permeates through the franchise right now and point to the ongoing search for solutions.

“I’m not fixated on language, terming it a rebuild, terming it retool, we just need to get better,” Shapiro said Wednesday afternoon.

“In the nine seasons I’ve been through this [in Toronto], this is the biggest disconnect from expectations,” he added. “We need to learn. We need to get better from it.”

The fan base’s appetite for change these days is hearty if you believe the social media sample size and the smattering of boos at the ballpark, but Shapiro doesn’t seem to be in front office evaluation mode.

Considering ninth-year GM Ross Atkins and his group just went through a vital trade deadline period with the future in mind, it would make sense that Shapiro has already decided to stay the course.

He could also have quietly decided to table that decision until October, given there’s eight weeks of baseball to be played and zero point of showing his hand in August.

Over the course of this regime’s tenure, however, it’s notable how loyal they’ve been to those hired in a lot of areas of the organization and non-reactionary when it comes to both player personnel moves and coaching/front office shuffles.

Some might say too loyal, too patient.

Asked about the job Atkins has done, Shapiro didn’t give a full-blown vote of confidence, but philosophically, he seemed to say that he doesn’t believe the people building the roster are the biggest problem.

“I very rarely am unequivocal about anything,” Shapiro said. “Commenting on job status during the season throughout my entire career when I’ve been asked about those things is not something I have or will ever do.

"That being said, contextually, I’m a huge believer in stability and continuity and that those are competitive advantages in professional sports, that reacting and change don’t necessarily mean improvement. We need to be better. We have to be better. Again, I think stability and continuity and making adjustments are where I’m focused right now.”

In other words, check back in October at Shapiro’s year-end presser for who’ll be leading the front office into one of the most important off-seasons in recent memory.

“It’s not just me,” Shapiro added on the topic of continuity. “You look at the best-in-class organizations and sports teams and there are teams that weather pressure and weather challenges and stick with people and allow them to make adjustments.”

The betting favourite is still Atkins, but it’s probably even money.

No matter what you think of the executives, the collection of talent on the field needs to improve and Shapiro isn’t shying away from that.

“It’s not a mystery why we fell short of expectations,” he said. “The bullpen’s been a challenge for us all season long, significant injuries to the three guys that we expected to anchor the back-end, and then the backfill just wasn’t there. So the bullpen’s been an achilles for us all year and then there’s a number of guys in the lineup that projected to have carrying levels of performance that didn’t happen. I think the greater focus for us is how can we learn from that, what role did we play in that and how we can construct a team that’s better next year. There’s no doubt it’s bitterly disappointing.”

Heading into an off-season where the free-agent market aligns much better with what the Jays seek — the lack of bats available last winter was a major problem — there’s a decent chance the Jays will be running a top 10 payroll once again in 2025.

Shapiro said if it’s less than the $220 million or so the club spent this year — that figure placed them ninth or 10th in baseball, depending what resource you use — it won’t be a “large-scale pullback.”

The thought process at this point, combined with the resources available thanks to a number of contracts coming off the books, is that the Jays are going to go star shopping early in the offseason in search of an impact bat and a No. 2 starter to wedge between Kevin Gausman and the veteran mid-rotation duo of Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt.

Shapiro repeatedly mentioned “the core” on Wednesday and their desire to compete in 2025, which at this point is the expectation.

Swing and miss in the early stages of free agency, though, and maybe things change.

“We need to evaluate and make sure we have a core in place that’s championship calibre, contending calibre for next season, and then supplement where we need to supplement,” Shapiro said.

“We believe that there’s enough talent in place to build a contending, championship-calibre team next year. Had we not [believed that], we would have made a different set of decisions [at the trade deadline].”