UPDATE: The Blue Jays announced the hiring of Atkins and the promotion of LaCava.
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The Toronto Blue Jays reportedly have a new general manager following the departure of Alex Anthopoulos. Blue Jays CEO and president Mark Shapiro is said to have hired Cleveland Indians vice president of player personnel Ross Atkins to the post.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle broke the news after hearing it from a "well-placed source." Jordan Bastian of MLB.com confirmed the news. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca said an official announcement is expected Friday.
Atkins, 42, worked under Shapiro during their time with the Cleveland Indians. Atkins has been with the Indians for the past 15 years and also served as the club's director of player development, director of Latin American operations, and assistant director of player development.
Tony LaCava, who has been serving as the Blue Jays' interim GM, will likely return to his previous role as assistant GM. He was a finalist for the position, but it appears as if Shapiro would rather put someone he has experience working with in such an important role.
Bob Elliot of the Toronto Sun previously reported that Atkins was not present at the Indians' organizational meetings, which spurred rumors about him possible being hired as Blue Jays GM. It was previously known Atkins was interviewing for the position.
Now, if you ask me, it seems as if the Blue Jays are taking a colossal step backward. Shapiro and Atkins are from a losing organization. Shapiro ran the show in Cleveland as general manager and president from 2001-2015 and Atkins was with the club throughout the same time period. The Indians made the postseason three times (one was a loss in the AL Wild Card Game) over that span and recorded eight losing records.
Former CEO Paul Beeston oversaw the team from 1989-1997 (four playoff appearances, four ALCS appearances and two World Series championships) and 2008-2015 (one ALCS appearance). Atkins, who has no experience as GM, will success Anthopoulos, who orchestrated arguably the greatest trade deadline for an MLB team of all-time and propelled the Blue Jays to their first playoff appearance in 22 years.
I'm not really sure how this is going to work out for Toronto, but the fans were already disappointed with Shapiro for not doing all he could to retain Anthopoulos. Now that he's hired somebody he previously worked with and spurned LaCava, who has been with Toronto since 2002, I can't envision the fans being too thrilled.
Stay tuned for an official announcement on the hiring of Atkins.