Ross Atkins owns Blue Jays’ offensive failure and promises to seek improvement

It won't take the Toronto Blue Jays very long to do a full post-mortem review of what went wrong in 2026. Plain and simple, their offence never gave a battered pitching staff a chance to succeed.

Toronto finished last in the majors with 152 home runs and 648 runs scored one year after reaching the World Series. The lineup rarely built sustained pressure, and the biggest stars underperformed.

General manager Ross Atkins did not try to soften that assessment during the team’s end-of-year press conference. He also did not attempt to pass responsibility elsewhere.

“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, according to MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson.

Atkins says that the offence “never gained any momentum.” Mostly in part due to that lack of being able to put the ball over the wall. He says, "When that happens, you’re relying on line drives in gaps. The contact just wasn’t enough.”

It's obvious to everyone what the Blue Jays should be shopping for this offseason and they can't let the winter of 2026-27 go by without beefing up their lineup. President and CEO Mark Shapiro reinforced that expectation. Speaking about possible offensive upgrades, Shapiro said Atkins would continue looking for ways to improve and that any addition would need to be “impactful.”

Second base and the outfield are the areas the Blue Jays need to upgrade

While Ernie Clement was mentioned as a valuable piece of the Blue Jays roster, Atkins also said he would have to earn his way toward playing second base every day next season. He also said Brett Bateman impressed as a rookie without convincing the club that he should be asked to handle 162 games in the outfield.

That creates room for Toronto to pursue either a power-hitting middle infielder or an established corner outfielder. Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki, Seattle Mariners outfielder Randy Arozarena and Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Brandon Lowe are among the free agents who fit what Toronto need in 2026.

Suzuki has hit 20+ home runs every year since 2023. Arozarena is going on six straight seasons of 20+ home runs. Though he has never surpassed 27 in a single season he has also never had an ISO below .169 in a full season. Lowe just smashed 35 home runs as a second baseman and 31 last year with the Tampa Bay Rays. The five players who manned second base for the Blue Jays this past season combined for 21 home runs.

Regardless of who they add, internal improvement will still be essential. Kazuma Okamoto will need some support after leading the club with 33 home runs and it won't work if only three other players reach double digits in that category, especially when one of them is George Springer (15). There's also just that tiny, little fact that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. must rebound from the worst season of his career.

But Atkins and Shapiro have now made their intentions public. After a 79-83 finish and a last-place offence, a modest addition would not match their own assessment of the problem.

The Blue Jays need the kind of hitter that can impact a game with one swing of the bat. Anything less would make their promise of an impactful offseason addition difficult to take seriously.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow