Blue Jays fans have had plenty of reasons to come after Ross Atkins over the years, but the 2026 disaster doesn’t belong on his desk.
Toronto’s general manager has taken his lumps for a long list of decisions, and some of that criticism is well earned. Still, the way this season has unraveled is mostly about the players not delivering, not about the front office missing the mark.
The biggest issue is simple: the Blue Jays can’t hit. They also keep giving away outs and runs with sloppy defense. That’s not a roster-management problem in the moment so much as a team full of players falling far short of what was expected.
Atkins’ track record in Toronto has been rocky from the start. He arrived after Alex Anthopoulous, the popular builder of the 2015 Blue Jays, stepped down following a reported personality clash with team president Mark Shapiro. From there, Atkins watched franchise staples José Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion leave in free agency.
The criticism only grew with a series of unpopular moves. Trading Teoscar Hernández for now-retired reliever Erik Swanson drew heavy backlash, and the reaction got even louder when Gabriel Moreno and Loudres Gurriel Jr. were dealt to Arizona for Daulton Varsho.
Then came the José Berríos decision in the 2023 postseason, when the Atkins-led front office essentially pushed manager John Schneider to remove the right-hander early in Game 2 of the Wild Card series against the Minnesota Twins even though he was pitching well. The move backfired, Toronto was eliminated, and that episode stuck to the front office.
But even with all of that baggage, Atkins also put together the 2025 World Series team. That club came within two outs of a title, and he added to it this past offseason with the idea of finishing the job in 2026.
Instead, the Blue Jays are staring at a season that looks increasingly unlikely to end in a playoff berth, much less a championship run. The new arrivals - Dylan Cease, Kazuma Okamoto, and Tyler Rogers - have performed just as expected.
The Bo Bichette situation is worth mentioning too. Atkins did not bring him back, but Bichette’s three-year, $126 million deal with the New York Mets was a massive overpay and already looks like a burden. Okamoto has provided more value at a much lower cost.
The real collapse, though, has come from the core bats. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer, Daulton Varsho, and Alejandro Kirk have all been awful at the plate. Atkins built this roster expecting those four to be above-average hitters, and instead all four have been below replacement level.
The pitching depth also took hits that no general manager can control. Cody Ponce blew out his knee in his first start as a Blue Jay.
Berríos later suffered a stress fracture in his elbow. Shane Bieber spent several months on the injured list.
Those injuries stripped away what had looked like a deep staff.
At the end of the day, Atkins has plenty of past decisions that deserve criticism. But the 2026 Blue Jays’ failures are being driven by the players on the field not producing. That’s the part of the story he can’t be blamed for.
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What makes this one stand out is how Toronto got it done. The club managed its draft pool with enough discipline to make the bonus work, leaning on savings from other picks to create room for Bricks agreement. For a team trying to stockpile catching talent without losing flexibility elsewhere, it was the kind of maneuver that says as much about the front offices planning as it does about the player himself. [Read more 🡒]