It sure sounds like the 2025 season will be Ross Atkins’ last chance to prove himself in Toronto

The 2024 season was an abject failure for the Toronto Blue Jays. It started with a failed Shohei Ohtani pursuit, and ended with a 74-88 record - their worst mark in five years. They hoped to make their third straight postseason appearance, but ended up finishing in last place in the AL East. The season went so poorly to the point where they were major sellers at the trade deadline.

The season going as poorly as it did had Blue Jays fans calling for the firing of Ross Atkins, the team's general manager. Atkins has done some good in Toronto, but again, the season could not have gone much worse.

Fortunately for those Blue Jays fans who are fed up with the current front office, it sounds as if 2025 could be Atkins' last chance to prove himself in Toronto according to what Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet said on the Foul Territory podcast.

"I'm not reporting anything new here when I say this, but I would think that it's a fair assumption that if Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins don't make the playoffs this year then it would be a much harder sell to ownership to say 'Guys, I know we just had two bad years in a row, and the franchise is not where we want it to be, but we deserve an extension.' That starts to become a really tough sell."

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Ross Atkins could be running out of time to field winner in Toronto

Nicholson-Smith believes it could be playoffs or bust for Atkins to keep his job. For that to happen, a lot would have to go right.

Signing Juan Soto is probably unlikely, but it might have to be necessary to help this team make the 15-win or so turnaround needed to squeak into the playoffs. Additionally, the Jays should add more reinforcements to their lineup and bolster what was, by fWAR, the worst bullpen in the majors in 2024. In other words, they have a long way to go to even make things interesting, and the fact that they play in the AL East makes it even tougher.

Having that big of a turnaround is tough to envision, but that really should be the line to justify Atkins keeping his job past 2025. An argument can (and probably should) be made that he should've been let go by now.

Atkins has been running the show since 2016. The Jays made it to the ALCS that season, but that was thanks in large part to a roster put together by Alex Anthopoulos. Since that ALCS run, the Jays have made the postseason three times and have put up a grand total of zero postseason wins. Not only have the Jays failed to win a series, but they've failed to win a single postseason game.

The Jays have not won a single division title under Atkins. Their roster right now under Atkins features Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a whole bunch of question marks. Even with that being said, Guerrero is only under club control through 2025.

If Atkins can somehow guide this team to the postseason, he'll have earned a discussion to remain in the organization for longer. Assuming he comes up short, there's no justification to keep him around. He's accomplished little to nothing in Toronto, and has an older team with a subpar farm system and its best player on an expiring contract. It's time for Atkins to prove why he's been given so much rope at long last.