Blue Jays injuries and underperformance should give Ross Atkins and John Schneider another chance

Now that the 2026 season is over for the Toronto Blue Jays, there are questions about whether general manager Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider are to blame for the poor outcome.

Both Atkins and Schneider signed contract extensions with the Blue Jays ahead of the 2026 season. Atkins' contract runs through 2031, while Schneider's runs through 2028. This wasn't surprising coming off of 2025's World Series appearance. Schneider had been nominated for AL Manager of the Year, but lost to Stephen Vogt of the Cleveland Guardians. Atkins had just finished a very productive offseason for the Blue Jays.

Despite all the promise heading into 2026, the Blue Jays finished last in the AL East with a 79-83 record. It was the second time in three years the Blue Jays found themselves in the basement - even with a World Series appearance in between.

The extremes of the previous three seasons for the Blue Jays make it difficult to gauge whether Atkins and Schneider are the best people to lead the team beyond this year. Before 2024, the Blue Jays were a Wild Card team in both 2022 and 2023 under Schneider.

Since taking over for Charlie Montoyo in July of 2022, the Blue Jays have gone 382-340. Among Blue Jays managers with at least a season under their belt, Schneider's .529 win percentage ranks fourth, just ahead of Cito Gaston.

Injuries and underperformance made John Schneider’s job nearly impossible

While 2026 was undoubtedly disappointing for the Blue Jays, it's hard to pin the blame on Schneider. The number of injuries the team had to deal with made it difficult to build any momentum. This was especially true for the starting rotation.

The Blue Jays were forced to rely heavily on bullpen games with their relievers accumulating the third most innings this past year with 686.2. That was 89.1 more innings they were asked to cover year over year.

Despite the extra workload, the bullpen was one of the few bright spots for the Blue Jays, posting the seventh-lowest ERA in MLB (3.57). The bullpen was one of the main reasons the Blue Jays stayed in the playoff race as long as they did, despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. The players themselves deserve most of the credit, but Schneider also deserves his flowers for how well he managed the bullpen throughout the turmoil.

One conversation point that continued throughout the year was why Schneider never dropped Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the batting order. Guerrero batted third for most of the season, though he hit first or second on occasion. This was despite having his worst offensive season to date. Aside from the fact that the lineup is constructed around Guerrero, Schneider also told MLB.com's Keegan Matheson that he didn't want to punish Guerrero for his poor performance.

There's no way to know if it would have actually made a difference as the Blue Jays struggled offensively as a whole. There's only so much that can be done by changing the lineup if the players don't perform.

If other players were clearly better suited to batting at the top of the order than Guerrero, maybe Schneider would have made a move. But, the Blue Jays struggled up and down the lineup and Atkins isn't holding Schneider at fault for that.

"We feel good about the group that's in place, and we're going to work through that process," Atkins said during the Blue Jays' end-of-season media availability when asked about Schneider and the coaching staff.

As for his own role in the Blue Jays' disappointing season, Atkins took full responsibility. "As much as we talk about run scoring, run prevention, defence, base running...There's one person to look at for the reasons for that, and that's me," Atkins said.

Not much went right for the Blue Jays in 2026, but the offseason moves were overall successful. Dylan Cease will likely finish second in AL Cy Young voting; Kazuma Okamoto was by far the most productive batter for the Blue Jays; and Tyler Rogers had the seventh-lowest ERA among MLB relievers. The Blue Jays had a roster capable of being competitive; they just didn't perform well enough.

While it's admirable that Atkins took responsibility for 2026, he put the Blue Jays in a great position heading into the season. He'll need to prove himself again, but it's hard to blame him for established players underperforming.

That's not to say every move Atkins has made has worked. As it stands, Anthony Santander is one of the worst contracts in franchise history. Andrés Giménez, though he was one of the better offesive performers this season, he has also been listed among the worst contracts in MLB. Atkins doesn't have a perfect track record, but 2026 would have been much worse without the moves he made.

There's a lot of blame to go around for the results of 2026. Schneider and Atkins both share some of that blame, but not enough to put their jobs at risk.

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