Jays boss feels ‘sense of urgency to win’
Shapiro predicts better days ahead for rebuilding team
TORONTO Over his days spent dismantling most of what was good about the Toronto Blue Jays as recently as three years ago, team president Mark Shapiro has learned a few things.
He’s certainly learned that the “tenor and frustration” of the team’s fans are real and not particularly friendly these days. And perhaps he’s even learned that a one-day stab at some goodwill may be worthwhile.
So with that, Shapiro worked the Toronto media hard on Thursday as the team returned from a 10-day road trip, during which time the trade deadline passed with more purging.
Shapiro was on radio and TV, and for 59 minutes (including a five-minute soliloquy to start), held a rare news conference with Toronto reporters who cover his team on a regular basis.
On the surface, he gave the fans what they wanted to hear: “We feel a sense of urgency to win,” he said.
“We’re doing everything humanly possible to push that envelope. I don’t like not winning.”
And then he hinted at what people really should want to know: How long can this go on?
While Shapiro runs the front office with his right-hand man, GM Ross Atkins, those two also have bosses. The heat from Rogers Communications hasn’t arrived, but Shapiro knows how the sports business works.
“When I deal with (Rogers), they’re supportive and they understand the plan, but they’re just like any boss and we ultimately need to deliver results,” Shapiro said. “I feel like we’ve made tangible, objective progress in a short period of time, but we need to continue. We have to or the repercussions are obvious.” If they’re not, they should be. No one is suggesting current management is on the clock, but an acknowledgment that “repercussions” are a possibility from Shapiro is certainly revealing.
Attendance is down at a building owned by Rogers and TV ratings have taken a dive for a network also owned by Rogers. That happens when a team spends the first half of its season on pace to lose more than 100 games, and just last week, finished gouging its roster of a strong group of players those fans had a meaningful connection with.
“The decline in attendance and the decline in TV ratings, it’s a pretty common occurrence with every major league team,” Shapiro said. “When you lose, attendance drops and television ratings drop, and when you win, attendance rises and television ratings rise.
“So the bulk of my conversations to date (with Rogers execs) have been focused on what’s the plan to get back to winning and how fast can that happen.”
Shapiro knows it’s a business, of course, and he’s running the team accordingly. With a paltry payroll of US$64.68 million (according to Baseball Reference), the Jays aren’t losing money, so that keeps the Rogers barons at bay.
“The only directive from ownership is to run a business that doesn’t lose money, which means, obviously, payroll’s going to reflect revenue, and revenues are down because attendance is down,” Shapiro said. “When you’re in a down cycle, not losing money is the most important thing.” (Translation: We can be as bad as it takes right now because our payroll is peanuts.)
“Part of the plan and part of the understanding has been that there will be a time that we need to outspend, outpace revenue with spending on players,” Shapiro said. “I think that when (that happens), they’ll rely on us (the Jays front office and say) ‘OK, we’re close enough to a contending team that we need to go out and spend on players to supplement this core.’”
Don’t count on that happening any time soon, however, and in particular this off-season, when the free agent crop of pitchers is lean. Shapiro said the team isn’t anxious to spend $25 million on a player who will help the team jump from 82 to 85 wins.
As mentioned off the top, much of Thursday was an exercise in spin. Shapiro claimed to understand the restlessness of a fan base that led the American League in attendance in 2016 and 2017.
“Winning will fix everything, there’s no question in my mind,” Shapiro said. “And that’s ultimately the only thing that will satisfy people.”
The next step, then, is to hope those loyal fans can forget about Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman, pretend they’ve never heard of Josh Donaldson and Kevin Pillar, and move on.