The Blue Jays announced this morning that they’ve signed GM Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider to contract extensions. Both were entering the final seasons of their current contracts, but Atkins has re-upped on a five-year deal that will take him through the 2031 season while Schneider will return on a two-year deal that lasts through the 2028 campaign.
The news is hardly surprising following Toronto’s impressive run in the playoffs last year, where they secured the AL pennant and came just shy of besting the Dodgers in seven games during the World Series. While Toronto ultimately lost Game Seven of that series, it’s easy to see that ownership is pleased with the club’s performance. Not only was the team green-lit to acquire Dylan Cease and pursue other big names on the free agent market like Kyle Tucker this winter, but Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers also decided to give team president and CEO Mark Shapiro a five-year contract extension back in December that runs through 2030. Once Shapiro received in extension, both Atkins and Schneider were widely assumed to eventually follow suit around the league.
Atkins joined the Jays prior to the 2016 season, and he’s overseen the beginning of the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. era in Toronto. While Guerrero signed with the organization as an international amateur a few months before Atkins and Shapiro arrived, every professional game he’s played during his career has been with them at the helm of the club. Guerrero has been the face of Toronto’s return to relevance after a rebuilding period early in Atkins’s tenure with the organization, from the second year of his career in 2020 onward the Jays have made the postseason four times in six years with a 472-398 record overall. That’s roughly an 88-win pace over the last six years, and under Schneider’s leadership over the past three years they’ve gone 257-229 they’ve managed a roughly 86-win pace with two playoff berths.
It may have seemed to be a no-brainer that the club would decide to keep the good times rolling with their current group after this year’s run to the World Series, but that was hardly a guarantee this time last year. One year ago, Guerrero had not yet signed an extension, the club had whiffed on both Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto in free agency during back-to-back offseasons, and the Jays were coming off a deeply disappointing 88-loss season that saw the club sell at the trade deadline and called their longer-term viability as a contender into question. It’s fortunate that the organization’s banner year in 2025 answered those questions, because it’s not hard to imagine another poor performance on the field from the club last year ending in changes to the front office and dugout rather than contract extensions for the organization’s leadership.
As Atkins, Schneider, and Shapiro head into the 2026 season and look ahead to at least a few more years running the Blue Jays together, long-term deals for Guerrero, Cease, Alejandro Kirk, and Andres Gimenez figure to make them all staples of the organization going forward. Other pieces under long-term control include Trey Yesavage, Anthony Santander, Kazuma Okamoto, Louie Varland, and a collection of young hitting talent headlined by Addison Barger. It’s a solid group overall, though the next few years will also see the team contend with the impending free agencies of George Springer, Daulton Varsho, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and other key members of the roster who will need to be replaced.
Well deserved!
The only real surprise is this didn’t happen earlier in the offseason.
I’m old enough to remember when almost everyone on this site wanted atkin’s and Shapiro’s heads on a platter… lol
You’re one year old?
Been going on for much longer than a year.
Agreed. Jays fans wanted Atkins and Shapiro gone for many years. They had series of very poor drafts and some uninspired moves like Montoya as manager.
It tuned before last year though. Shapiro did the massive renos in Dunedin and in Toronto and convinced ownership to spend. The organization was shooting to be one of the top ones in development.
For Atkins the 2024 sell off had some good moves, the drafts were better, and bringing in Lukes and Clement for essentially nothing was shrewd.
And although we didn’t know it, bringing in the new hitting coaches (thanks to the Twins!) turned around the offense.
I think Atkins has become better at his job. Maybe it’s just luck. But it seems the Jays have a plan.
And Schneider too to and extent. But hey doing well fixes that. Mostly.
It’s bc we had AA who has accomplished more than Atkins. Vladdy is still an AA signing.
Rewarding performance, what a concept. Too bad two Canadian pilots are dead because of our own incompetence. A sad day.
what does that have to do with extending atkins and Schneider
Compare and contrast, it’s a basic tool of exposition.
Stop with politics on a sports site. I come here to get away from that stuff, as tragic as it may be.
You have absolutely no idea what caused that accident. Blaming anyone without a proper investigation, which Kathryn Garcia is the person to ensure happens, is disgraceful.
“Other pieces under long-term control include … Anthony Santander…”
Piece of what?