Blue Jays: Mark Shapiro deserves to stick around

Toronto Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro deserves a new contract from Rogers.

In recent news surrounding the Toronto Blue Jays, Mark Shapiro’s name has come up as his contract expires once the season ends.

This topic was broached to Shaprio by Blue Jays Sportsnet reporter Shi Davidi and this is what the President had to say:

More from Toronto Blue Jays News

• Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays advance to the Championship Series
• Blue Jays: Comparisons for Alek Manoah’s Second Season
• Blue Jays: Adam Cimber, the unlikely decision King
• Toronto Blue Jays: Has the Shift Killed Kevin Gausman’s 2022 Cy Young Hopes?
• Blue Jays: What Yusei Kikuchi’s latest stumble should mean

When Shapiro and Atkins took over the front office in 2016 after spending time in the Cleveland Indians organization, fans were skeptical of what they were going to bring.

At first, they didn’t appease fans with their moves. One example of this is when they opted to sign Kendrys Morales instead of Edwin Encarnacion which was viewed as a cost-cutting move as they gave him a three-year, $33 million deal. This move seemed to end any reunion with Edwin as Morales was brought in to replace Edwin’s spot and impact on the team.

Fans weren’t happy with trades this front office made either. In 2018, they traded away J.A. Happ for a return of Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney. Neither of those players were prospects, rather were injury replacements at the major league level.

Fan favourite Kevin Pillar was traded for two below replacement players and a prospect that hasn’t done well in the Jays organization which angered fans as well. They also traded away Marcus Stroman for what at the time, was viewed as a dismal return but those complaints have quieted in recent months.

Fans weren’t so happy that fan favourite players from the previous front office were traded away but Shapiro and Atkins had a plan when they did so. The plan was to build a team that was going to be competitive for the foreseeable future.

They’ve definitely accomplished that plan. They’ve built a strong farm system that has seen prospects that have already graduated through the system. While he and Atkins can’t take credit for bringing in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.as that was done by Alex Anthopolous, they deserve credit for drafting the likes of Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Nate Pearson, Austin Martin, and others.

Also, they reached the playoffs for the first time in four years this season and this is just seen as the beginning of a dynasty in the making.

As Shapiro himself said, the focus should be on the players, but at some point, the front office will have to focus on extending Mark Shapiro to keep him around for the long haul.