Will Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro Ever Be as Well-liked as Masai Ujiri?

Where They’ve Erred

You don’t have to go far to find a Jays fan willing to criticize the team’s current regime, and it’s been that way since the very beginning.

It began with the disappointing departure of Edwin Encarnacion, and continued through a tough rebuild highlighted by disappointing returns on seemingly valuable assets like J.A. Happ, Marcus Stroman and Josh Donaldson. The excitement of three post-season appearances since 2020 have been dampened by questionable pitching decisions and a lack of transparency surrounding just who was responsible for making them.

Ujiri, of course, did not have a perfect tenure with the Raptors. Plenty have questioned the team’s direction since the 2019 Championship. Think Aron Baynes, Demarre Carroll, or the underwhelming or nonexistent returns for players like Norm Powell, Pascal Siakam, and Fred Vanvleet.

Whether it’s stubbornness, a loss of passion, or simply a case of waiting too long for the next real opportunity, the second half of Ujiri’s time in Toronto was much more underwhelming than the first.
But even through that dark period, you knew that when Ujiri stepped up to a microphone, what you were going to get from him was something close to how he truly felt.

This is an area that Shapiro nor Atkins will likely ever live up to, and why achieving Ujiri’s level of popularity is likely impossible.