Rookie GM finding his way
Blue Jays’ Atkins playing it safe at winter meetings
NASHVILLE— A debut press briefing on Day 2 of the winter meetings by Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins lacked clarity, careening wildly toward the opaque.
But give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the 42-year-old rookie GM was nervous. Or perhaps he had been over-coached by team president Mark Shapiro in the art of saying little. But the 20-minute session in the team’s suite at the fabulous Opryland Resort, the cradle of country music, had his audience humming Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues.”
Regarding Edwin Encarnacion and his sudden demand that a contract extension be in place by opening day or else he will test free agency at the end of the season and not re-sign with the Jays, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com spoke to his agent, Paul Kinzer.
He confirmed he met with the team Monday evening and laid down Encarnacion’s conditions moving forward. Atkins then commented. “We’re open and want to work toward players being comfortable, feeling good about the start of their season, and we’ll continue to work towards that,” Atkins said of the Jays’ reaction to the news. “If our phone rings we’re answering it — and working hard to put players in the best environment possible.”
It was pointed out there are 36 position players in the American League that will be making as much or more money than Encarnacion. That list includes Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche, Chase Headley, Colby Rasmus, Rusney Castillo and Coco Crisp. Is Encarnacion the 37th most productive player in the league, or is there a way to correct that inequity in a creative way?
“Here’s what I can tell you about our team — we feel really good about 2016 and we’re going to look to make it better,” Atkins responded. “We are very happy to have him on it.”
Atkins showed a glimpse of his human side when he spoke about a Sunday meeting he arranged at the hotel with veteran starter R.A. Dickey, a Nashville resident.
The first-year GM had spoken about a desire to meet with most of the team’s major players before spring training, and Dickey was first. “He and I had some common things in our past,” Atkins said of the veteran knuckleballer. “We’re the same age and have some really good mutual friends. So I enjoyed talking to him, getting to know him a little bit further. He’s really good friends with our pitching coach, Mickey Callaway, in Cleveland. His wife went to school with a good friend of mine . . . when you play minorleague baseball and in the world of professional baseball you end up crossing paths and having a lot of mutual friends. But I had never met (Dickey).
“So it was just fun to have that interaction.”
Reading between the lines of his
This is a difficult situation for Atkins, who is part of a three-headed leadership committee with Shapiro, LaCava
other tiptoeing, it sounded like the Jays were getting close to signing a relief pitcher from the free agent ranks. The market for relievers has been evolving rapidly, and Atkins said he was closer to adding someone than he had been when he arrived here.
“I’m not going to comment on specific players that we’re targeting, but we really feel good about progress we’ve made here in the time that we’ve had,” Atkins said. “I’m excited about (Tuesday night) and (Wednesday) morning and we’re a little bit closer every day to making the team a little bit better.”
Atkins, the former Indians vicepresident of player personnel, was asked what type of pitchers he preferred, what was his preferred repertoire in an attempt to maybe narrow down the scope.
“I like the type of pitchers the Toronto Blue Jays like,” Atkins said, somewhat redundantly. “So I want to be collaborative in thinking about that. Just my input is a part of it, but two things that come to mind are durability and outs. I like pitchers that can get outs and can take the ball.”
Now, it’s difficult to compare Atkins’ Tuesday to former GM Alex Anthopoulos’s winter meetings debut in December 2009 in Indianapolis. Back then, two months into his tenure of replacing J.P. Ricciardi, the then-32-year-old had been given one main task — find a new home for ace Roy Halladay. So with Anthopoulos in Indy, there was always a relevant line of questioning, and even though he skated through that five-day session, there was always something to write about.
This is a difficult situation for Atkins, who is part of a three-headed leadership committee of Shapiro and GM runner-up Tony LaCava, who ran the briefing on the first day.
The lines of authority will surely become clearer as everyone becomes more familiar, but for now we’ll finish with Atkins’ answer as to whether the 13 pitching prospects that were traded by the Blue Jays this past July makes it tougher to put together deals now because of the sudden thinning of the farm system.
“The fact they had the talent in the system to make those moves is very telling about the strength of the organization,” Atkins said. “It was impressive to watch the run that team made . . . as I look at the organization, we’re just looking at how we can make it better.”