Blue Jays fans and their 'Fire Atkins' chant tells you all you need to know about belief in front office

During Friday's agonizing 5-4 defeat by the Detroit Tigers in their first game after the All-Star Break, Blue Jays fans made their feelings clear towards the front office by breaking out in 'Fire Atkins' chants. The Blue Jays have massive underachieved this season, sitting bottom of the AL East, their playoff odds are at 1% with a payroll of $227 million. Pressure is clearly mounting on the front office.

Ross Atkins has been the general manager since 2016 when him and Mark Shapiro arrived from Cleveland. They made it to the ALCS in his first year but the Blue Jays have failed to win a playoff game since then. Bob Nightengale recently revealed that Atkins is in danger of losing his job and it is widely expected that Atkins will take charge of Trade Deadline proceedings in nine days, where they're likely to trade their impending free agents. However, Kikuchi and Jansen are the only ones who'll produce significant returns. The fanbase have been crying out for change and earlier in the season it was suggested that the Blue Jays could proceed with barring a dramatic turnaround. This would see Vice President of Baseball Operations James Click take over on an interim basis. He'd have to make crucial decisions on offseason plans and the coaching staff heading into the 2025 season. Next year, the Blue Jays plan to 'run things back' and give it one last shot with Bo Bichette, who is open to a trade and Vladimir Guerrero Jr, who is open to a long-term extension with the team.

Atkins is signed through 2026 but his tenure as the General Manager of the Blue Jays is surely coming to an end. Whilst he can be given credit for the free agent signings of George Springer, Kevin Gausman and Hyun-Jin Ryu, he's only extended Randal Grichuk and José Berríos in his nine years as GM. He's continued to stick by John Schneider who is also at risk of losing his job, for the team's underperformance. A prime example of this came after Berríos was pulled of Game 2 of the 2023 Wild Card Series against Minnesota in his end of season press conference. If the Trade Deadline isn't successful and regardless of the team's record at the end of the season, it looks as though Blue Jays fans will finally get what they've been longing for.