Like several Toronto Blue Jays fans, Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun has seen enough.
After another narrow miss in free agency (Roki Sasaki), Simmons has called for team President Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins to be fired. He wrote the following in a scathing column on Sunday:
Now another season is about to begin. The Blue Jays chased hard after Roki Sasaki, the Japanese free agent pitcher, and superstar Juan Soto, just as they chased hard after the unicorn, Shohei Ohtani, a year ago. Chasing hard is a wonderful trait. Baseball, and all sports, though, are forever about winning.
Do you believe the Jays can win with Shapiro and Atkins in charge? Does anyone?
It’s time once again for the invisible owner to act on the state of his beloved Blue Jays. Before they become nobody’s beloved Jays.
Shapiro has served as the team president and CEO since 2015 while Atkins has been the general manager since the same year.
The Blue Jays advanced to the American League Championship Series in 2016 and then made the playoffs again in 2020, 2022 and 2023, but they failed to win a single playoff game in any of those three years.
The Jays have struck out on Sasaki, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes and Teoscar Hernandez in successive offseasons.
They have been linked to free agents Alex Bregman, Anthony Santander and Pete Alonso this offseason, but so far haven’t been able to close the deal there either.