Alex Anthopoulos has put Toronto Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins to shame
Photo credit: Bluebird Banter
The Toronto Blue Jays organization may have committed the biggest mistake in their history by letting former general manager Alex Anthopoulos leave the organization.
Over the past couple of years with general manager Ross Atkins and president mark Shapiro at the helm, the Blue Jays have not won a playoff series since 2016 and have had a couple of instances of playoff games during their tenure.
Mark Shapiro on the Blue Jays depth and farm system.
Questions surfacing with how the current Blue Jays management operates
Cole explains that major questions have surfaced about how the Blue Jays operations are run and wonder if the team can attract big league superstars even with a major corporation like Rogers communications who the owners are.
Unfortunately, things have taken a turn for the worse lately and there are now real questions as to how much longer Toronto can realistically compete doing things the way they are» - Eric Cole Jays Journal
During his tenure, Anthopoulos gave Blue Jays fans hope as the team went to the ALCS twice and provided with some of the best baseball the fan base has seen since the glory days of the early 90s when the Blue Jays won two World Series back-to-back.
Imagine the Blue Jays with Alex Anthopoulos in charge instead of Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins, Steve Simmons Toronto Sun
He provided the Blue Jays star power during the 2014 season where he traded for Josh Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki and David Price amongst many other stars which gave the Blue Jays a new look and were highly competitive that season.
Eventually, Anthopoulos left as he was unable to work with Shapiro and ended up as assistant general manager of the Dodgers and then Anthopolous became the general manager of the Atlanta Braves where he had one a World Series back in 2021.
There's no guarantee that if Anthopolous would have remained that the Blue Jays would be in their current state or would be in a much better condition with better stars and more division titles and potentially a World Series.
Blue Jays looking for change for upcoming season
But with the current administration and how the team looks going forward into the new season, many fans long for the day of competitive baseball back in the mid 2010's that had Rogers Centre buzzing and the dugout filled with stars.
As Cole points out, running a baseball team in Canada provides some unique challenges that most Major League Baseball teams do not face.
Running a baseball team is hard and Toronto presents unique geographic challenges in terms of attracting top talent. The Blue Jays are trying to make waves including their failed pursuit of Shohei Ohtani, but it's notable that the top names on the market have turned down more money to avoid signing with the Blue Jays lately. - Eric Cole Jays Journal
It's safe to say that change is needed soon as Blue Jays fans would like to feel the winning ways once again.
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