PREPPING FOR A REPEAT PERFORMANCE
Some might think taking over a playoff team is a no-win. Not the Jays’ new GM
DUNEDIN, FLA.— Nearing the completion of his first spring training as a major-league general manager, and his first spring with the Blue Jays organization, the Star caught up with Ross Atkins in his office at the stadium in Dunedin to discuss his feelings on how far he has come and how far he has yet to go.
After five months in the position, what have you learned about your inherited front office, and are there still tweaks to be made in roles of scouting and player development?
I’ve learned a great deal and I think there’s a lot of good things in place here. I think Toronto has done a great job over the years on the scouting side and they’ve done an incredible job recently with some of their trades. There’s a great professional, international and amateur scouting infrastructure with a lot of really passionate people.
As far as potential tweaks, I think it’s more about adapting to one another. It’s not Cleveland-specific, relative to Toronto. It’s more about the pool of all of our experiences and trying to build the best (front office) team to build the best major-league team. We’ll look to add and complement to what’s good here.
It’s a two-way street — it’s difficult as you’re adapting to one another — but with Tony Lacava (the senior vice president of baseball operations) having been here for 14 years, this front office benefits greatly from not just him, but Andrew Tinnish, Perry Minasian, Joe Sheehan, having a comfort level throughout. The departments of baseball operations are the clear strength. Their support and their openness to change, welcoming (club president) Mark (Shapiro) and I in a way that has been collaborative and very open-minded has made things very efficient.
I know a lot of trades were made involving upper-level prospects in the organization. But when you look at your farm system now, do you see a lot of talent left at the lower levels, and could that be something where you just need to fill in the gaps in the meantime?
I’ve been pleasantly surprised. When you trade away as many players that were traded away a year ago, you wouldn’t expect to see Richard Urena, Rowdy Tellez, Conner Greene, Sean Reid-Foley, Dalton Pompey. You wouldn’t expect those pieces that are as good as they are to still be here.
I have been impressed with the talent all the way through A-ball. Some of those players will realize all of their potential, some will exceed and some will not realize their potential. So we’re going to have to focus on every single player in our organization and that includes the major leagues, improving. That will be our focus and our drive that we’re putting them all in a position to do so.
Are there distractions from preparing for a season when there’s so much emphasis on the pending free agents? And will performance on the field — returning to the post-season — change anything about the team’s signing philosophy?
I would say that every day is different. Every week is different. Every month is different. For me to project on . . . our ability or inability to sign free agents or renew players or extend players is too difficult to say.
What have you found out about John Gibbons and his staff. He hasn’t exactly been brought up on analytics. Is he accepting . . . are there things that he can continue to do with just gut feeling?
I think, with Gibby, there’s perception and reality. Gibby, to me, strikes me as someone who embraces . . . I think he would call it information and you can call it analytics. But he embraces information. He embraces change. He wants to be the best. He wants to be great.
He’s very bright and understands how he can benefit from information from any and all angles. The dynamic he has with our analytics department, the dynamic he has with Mark and I, obviously with Tony, is as good as it can be given how little time we’ve had together.
I think his openness is a difference maker.
Was (Cleveland manager) Terry Francona like that (regarding analytics) when he first went to the Red Sox and then the Indians? And did he evolve, the more information he was given?
Tito is one of the best baseball leaders I’ve been around. He is unique in that he embraces any and all ways to improve and sets a tone for the rest of the organization by doing so. How he’s evolved is a better question for (Francona), but I’ve learned more from him than arguably anybody in baseball when it comes to baseball culture and decision-making or team-building.
It can be a no-win situation for a new GM joining a team that’s just been to the ALCS. If you return (to the postseason) everybody goes, ‘Well, you had the talent,’ and if you don’t go back, it’s now your fault.
No, not at all for me. That’s not the way I see it, because all we focus on is how do we help and what is our process for doing that. Results will be what they will be. There’s only so much we can control and what we’ll evaluate ourselves on is our effort and our process.
Are you ready to remain standing for two national anthems 162 times this year, and have you scouted places to live with your family? Are you ready to become a resident of Canada?
(Laughs) Absolutely. I can’t express how much I’ve enjoyed what it means to fans to stand for two national anthems every day. My family is . . . we’ve sold our house in Cleveland and now are fully in the market and more seriously considering every day purchasing a home. We know that’s inevitable. We rented a home. My family will be moving as soon as they’re out of school. I can’t wait for my family to be a part of the community of Toronto and living in a new country.