5:20pm: The Blue Jays have officially announced the hiring via press release, adding that LaCava will remain with the organization and be promoted to senior vice president of baseball operations. Atkins will be introduced at a press conference tomorrow at 11am ET.
3:20pm: The Blue Jays will hire Indians vice president of player personnel Ross Atkins as their new general manager, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter), citing a “well-placed source.” The connection between Atkins and the Blue Jays has been made in the past and is a logical one, as Toronto president/CEO Mark Shapiro was recently hired away from the Indians, where he served as GM from 2001-10 and president from 2010-15. Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun reported recently that Atkins was curiously absent from the Indians’ organizational meetings, leading him to speculate that it could be due to the likelihood of him leaving to become the next Jays GM.
The hire means that longtime Blue Jays assistant GM Tony LaCava, who has been operating as the club’s interim general manager, will relinquish his GM duties and, presumably, return to his old role. The Blue Jays recently inked LaCava to a contract extension that would keep him in the organization regardless of whether or not he was named the club’s permanent general manager.
Atkins, 42, has spent the past 15 years with the Indians occupying a variety of roles in the organization, including vice president of player development, director of player development, director of Latin American operations and assistant director of player development. The Wake Forest grad played college ball for four years before being selected by Cleveland in the 38th round of the 1995 draft and embarking on a five-year minor league career.
Per Cleveland’s media guide, Atkins’ most recent responsibilities with the Indians included overseeing the entirety of the team’s player development operations, facilitating collaboration between the player development and scouting departments and advising president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti in player evaluation and staffing decisions.
LaCava is probably regretting turning down the Baltimore GM job now.
No he’s not. He turned it down because he wanted to stay in Toronto, and when he signed a long term contract a couple months ago he said he’d stay in Toronto in any capacity.
We’ll see how he feels after working for Shapiro for awhile.
Kinda doesnt matter. Common knowledge that Shapiro is the man holding all the cards now.
Hey look, more cronyism. It’s amazing how many times an exhaustive search only manages to turn up the guy the boss worked with before.
The march to mediocrity continues.
Messrs. Shapiro, Atkins and LaCava need to get to work on a demanding laundry list of things to do: beat the bushes for another front line starter (Lemke? Fister?) , a couple of bullpen horses, clarify Sanchez and Osuna roles, resign Josh Thole to catch Dickey, and pick up a decent backup catcher for Russ Martin.
I’d rather pass on those 2. For some reason I prefer Kazmir or Lee, lefties that have had history of success.
I don’t get this notation that Cliff Lee is just going to pick up a baseball and help a team win games. The guy has tried 3 different comebacks over the last 2 seasons, all unsuccessful. He has a torn flexor tendon that for 99% of pitchers, would require surgery to fix. Lee might come back, but he’ll give you 50 mediocre IP and thats if hes lucky.
One, they don’t have the money to sign Leake (I assume that’s who you meant by Lemke). Two, they don’t have money to go out and grab stud relievers, maybe one decent arm and a couple of minor league deals (which is actually a better idea since you can often “strike gold” with a guy on a cheap deal). And third, you want to resign Thole and then sign a third catcher? Most, if not all, teams only have two “designated” catchers on the 25 man roster at a time assuming both are healthy. It just doesn’t make sense roster wise to hold three catchers unless one can play multiple positions (as in more than just 1B).
Brutal. This place is turning into the Mark Shapiro old boys club. Eric wedge to replace Gibby in no time and our beauty stylized Bluejays logo soon to be replaced by something outdated and racist. FML. If they want to reinvent the Jays as the Indians 2.0 they damn well better work something out for Carrasco.
Honestly being from Northeastern Ohio, I actually doubt that the Blue Jays can trade for Carrasco since it will take more than Pillar in a trade to get him. Cleveland isn’t trading Carrasco unless they get a lot in return hence why he hasn’t been traded yet and Pillar is about all Toronto can offer in a trade at the moment
Problem with your analysis is that Cleveland needs a centre fielder, not a mere corner outfielder. True CF’s are hard to come by, especially ones who provide 5 rWAR a year with five more years of control.
I would trade Pillar straight up for Carrasco. Cleveland gets $10M in salary relief for the first two years; that should help them plug other holes.
One camp suggests that along with centerfielder Pillar, it will also take rhp Chavez and rhp Sanchez to get a top of the rotation guy like rhp Carrasco. Would these three be enough?
Either it would or won’t, the rumour points to the felt necessity to upgrade significantly the rotation.
Such a trade may also include a lhp from the Indians’ bp who would be going to the Bluejays.
Honestly Pillar is not even close to Carrascos value at all. You would need to give another two of torontos prospects with him to get even close to what his value actually is. Cleveland isn’t willing to trade Carrasco unless they get over paid for him and Toronto doesn’t have a great farm system at the moment so i don’t think Toronto could get Carrasco, but maybe Anderson. Cleveland isn’t going to be signing free agents and also the cost of signing a free agent SP will be more than they are paying for Carrasco. Also to 7leven, Cleveland will not trade a LHP since they have no depth there. If anything that is one of their targets this offseason.
Thanks, sportscoach. Rumour and speculation abound. It seems then that the people in the know are remaining silent, while those who know not are shouting from the rooftops.
Just from reading everything that is going on, Cleveland actually doesn’t want to part with any of their young pitchers, but they know if the right deal comes along they will do it. They are banking on the numbers and the years of Control and price of the players to get what they want back in return. They have depth at starting pitching, they aren’t willing to trade starting pitching unless they get a legit MLB bat with years of control and at least two legit prospects. I don’t think anyone will meet their demands, I am not gonna lie
Yeah, I’m not liking what the franchise has done the past month. Toronto was finally starting to field a winning Blue Jays team and then they started bringing in mediocrity.
I’m not following. The Indians logo has been around for 75 years or so? What did he do that was racist again?
The Toronto Indians…
We shall see how Shapiro works with a budget since he has never had one. He is actually pretty good at making trades. He hasn’t been shown to be great at signing free agents. Let’s see if that track record stays
How about drafting or developing talent???
Go look at the players drafted and developed on the Indians and come on back after you realize he’s done a damn good job there too.
We all want AA back any news on him
Wow, they sure know how to bring a franchise back to mediocrity. No offence to Ross, but his and Shapiro’s track record with building a franchise from the ground up has been pretty mediocre. They’ve had a pretty mediocre system in the past decade or so, and only Chisenhall and Lindor are first round picks that have made it to the big league roster (Lindor looks like he could be a star). I’m not very confident with where this franchise is headed. Reminds me of when the Indians peaked in 2007 and went downhill the following years. So far it looks like they’re going to build around the offence, and we all know how offence wins championships. Down the line I’m fearful they won’t even re-sign one or both of Joey Bats Or EE, and will probably not pony up to pay Donaldson and then begin entering more years of cheap rebuilding.
What was Alex Anthopoulos’ track record with building a franchise from the ground up? Not that great either. Not to mention these guys aren’t building a franchise from the ground up now (the Jays are still a pretty damn good roster if you haven’t noticed)
Calling a system “pretty mediocre” because their 1st round picks didn’t pan out is just silly. Their farm system has been solid for years with guys drafted in all sorts of rounds. Hardly anyone has a consistent track record with their 1st round picks panning out to be stars over and over again.
Heck, AA’s first rounders are as follows: 2010 – Deck McGuire, 2011 – Tyler Beede (who AA failed to sign), 2012 – DJ Davis, Marcus Stroman, 2013 – Phil Bickford (who AA failed to sign), 2014 – Jeff Hoffman, Max Pentecost, 2015 – Jonathon Harris.
6 drafts he was GM for. 8 1st round picks. 1 of them is a Major Leaguer today. Deck McGuire is a flop. Beede and Bickford never even made it to being a Blue Jay, DJ Davis is working his way through the system, Hoffman he traded away. Pentecost and Harris it’s too early to judge one way or another.
Seems like AA has a similar track record to the guys you are knocking, which means the Jays aren’t being “brought back to mediocrity” just because they let AA go and replaced him with similar people.
I wonder why Susan Slusser broke this news. Who is the well-placed source? I wonder if it could be AA and he is possibly joining the A’s in some capacity.
I was preparing to say that they should try to upgrade the pitching by trading one of EE or Baustisa for a year of a quality pitcher (similar to Porcello-for-Cespedes), but other than Stephen Strasburg (who isn’t a fit for that scenario), there is absolutely nothing on the FA market next year.
We’re looking at Cashner, Niese Anderson and CJ Wilson as some of the top arms on next years market.
With that said, what about focusing a deal around Pompey and/or Travis for a good pitcher? They have Goins who seems like a capable everyday 2B because of his defensive value, and Pillar/Baustisa/Revere for another year. If they don’t win next year, they might as well just rebuild.
Shapiro likes utility players. He loves utility players. He always thinks he’s getting some kind of bargain…three players for the price of one. That’s how he operates. It will be interesting to see if he changes strategy with more money to spend.
The money they wasted on J.A. Crapp and Dickey could have easily landed Zimmerman. Heck, there money and Price’s old salary could have landed Price. Then you resign Estrada and hope he isn’t a fluke, put Sanchez back in the rotation where he looked pretty good for a rookie and you have a good 1-4 and Drew can fill in the #5 spot.
Atkins presided over one of the worst drafting and development operations in baseball for years. Shapiro finally promoted him where he couldn’t do any more damage. I hear Eric Wedge is on his way to Toronto too. Hail, hail, the gang’s all there.
I actually like Wedge… on BBTN.
Nothing spells success than aping the Cleveland Indians. They’ve already begun by filling the rotation with garbage like Chavez and Crapp, and keeping the one pitcher that needed to go in Dickey. The Indian way, build a bad team and lose, is now the Blue Jay way.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Francona soon
As a long time Jays fan this all really SUCKS