The Blue Jays' disappointing first half of the season that has then in last place in the AL East heading into this week is drawing some strong reaction for local columnists, and the TORONTO SUN's Steve Simmons wrote while the team has never fired a GM mid-season before, “this is the time to say goodbye” to GM Ross Atkins. The Blue Jays, 36-43 and 14.5 games out of first place, are "plummeting” and have “next to no hope of reaching the third and final wild-card spot.” In similar seasons, the typical result is the “manager gets fired” and current Blue Jays skipper John Schneider will “probably be replaced when the season is over.” However, for now it "doesn't really matter who is managing” the club. This is a “serious time” for the Blue Jays, with the “public tuning out, with the team as disliked as it ever has been, with disgust being the emotion of most baseball days.” It is time for Blue Jays Chair Edward Rogers to “actually talk to the president and then say goodbye" to Atkins. With the trade deadline just a month away, Simmons wrote, “If Atkins turned last year’s 89-win team into this, why should he be rewarded or even allowed to make deals that will shape the Jays future?” (TORONTO SUN, 6/25).
POINTING BLAME: In Toronto, Gregor Chisholm wrote the top baseball topic around the team is "job security -- or the lack thereof” -- for Atkins and Blue Jays President & CEO Mark Shapiro. The Blue Jays entered this season “expecting to contend for a World Series,” and Atkins, who is in his ninth season, has been “given ample time and resources to make this work.” Letting Atkins go now, in the middle of a lost season, “might not lead to the kind of change most people want.” If anything, it “risks reinforcing issues that already exist,” as Atkins did not “build this on his own.” The Blue Jays “operate by consensus and seek input from multiple levels of the organization before making moves.” That means while Atkins “might be the one who takes the fall, there have been countless others who had a say in this downward slide.” Chisholm wrote what this organization “needs is a deep cleansing, some new ideas and a fresh start because the approach taken over the last nine years was -- at times -- good, but not good enough” (TORONTO STAR, 6/26).
