GM Ross Atkins says no managerial change is under consideration for the Blue Jays

The 2024 MLB season hasn’t gone to plan so far for the Toronto Blue Jays. With more than one-third of the way through the schedule, they find themselves hovering just a little below .500 at 28-30 while sitting uncomfortably in last place in the AL East, currently tied with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Mind you, the defense has looked superb, with great plays being made by various players at different times of the game that has helped the Jays out tremendously. However, their hitting and pitching has been another story to date. Until their recent solid stretch, they had been averaging less than 3.5 runs a game while giving up more than 4.5 runs a game in return.

With their struggles seemingly occurring from the top to the bottom of lineup, many had been calling for manager John Schneider’s job to be on the line. After all, in what is now his third season with the Jays, he had failed to help the club in making any progress in terms of getting beyond the first round of the playoffs. In addition, the team didn’t appear motivated or looked game-ready very often under the helm of Schneider. So perhaps by having a different voice in the room, it could change the whole team’s chemistry and execution.

However, in a recent interview with Jays’ GM Ross Atkins on the MLB Network Radio, host Jim Bowden confirmed that Atkins is not considering at all any type of managerial change despite the current team’s struggles. In fact, he truly believed that Schneider is actually part of the “solution” and not the “problem” for the team.

To some, this may be hard to believe. After all, Schneider has been notorious for making some wild and unexpected moves during game play that often ended up negatively affecting the outcome for the Jays. If he can’t make the right calls and decisions, how could he be the answer to the team’s issues?

For those that haven’t been following the Jays much this year, they may not have realized that Schneider has cut down tremendously on his blunders this year. On top of that, he has been willing to experiment with various aspects of the game, including fielding different lineups to find out what works best for the team and allowing for the resurrection of the home run jacket to boost team morale. In doing so, some of the players have responded well, including offensive leaders George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in the recent couple of weeks.

In addition, a more telltale stat that many may not realize is the fact that Schneider is currently the winningest Jays manager based on win percentage at .554 (for those with at least a minimum one full season under their belt). So whatever he has been doing, it has brought success to the team overall the past couple of years.

Moreover, the fact that Schneider is actually putting in his best effort to make the right adjustments hopefully for the better clearly indicates that he deserves a longer leash in running the show to see if he can drastically turn things around for the Jays.