3 undeserving Blue Jays who will be back because Ross Atkins is still in charge

The Toronto Blue Jays made the uninspiring, but expected decision to retain Ross Atkins even after their catastrophe of a season. They entered the 2024 campaign with lofty expectations which makes sense as the team was coming off back-to-back postseason appearances, but spent much of the season in last place in the AL East and finished with a 74-88 record.

Atkins returning for the 2025 season virtually guarantees a couple of things. The Blue Jays will not rebuild (even if they should), and several players and coaches who should be gone will be returning.

The Blue Jays already announced that former offensive coordinator Don Mattingly will be taking over as the team's bench coach even after their abysmal offensive season, and there are more strange decisions that will certainly come.

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3) George Springer's albatross contract is impossible to move

In the 2020 offseason, Ross Atkins made the decision to hand George Springer a six-year deal in free agency worth $150 million to come to Toronto. This felt like a major get for the Blue Jays who landed a marquee free agent, and for the first couple of seasons north of the border, Springer performed like the star he was expected to be.

He had a 141 OPS+ in the 2021 campaign, and followed that up by making the AL All-Star team in 2022 and hitting 25 home runs as the leadoff hitter. He took a step back in 2023, though, and this past season, looked completely unrecognizable.

The 35-year-old slashed .220/.303/.371 with 19 home runs and 56 RBI. The power production was decent, and he was able to steal 16 bases, but the decline is extremely noticeable from Springer at this point. He had a 92 OPS+ overall, making him eight percent below league average as a hitter.

Springer is set to make $24.1 million in 2025 and 2026 - quite the price tag, especially for a 35-year-old who is clearly regressing. The Jays might be able to offload the contract if they eat a sizeable chunk of it or attach a prospect, but chances are, Springer will be back as their everyday right fielder, presumably leading off, because Atkins was the one who gave him a six-year deal. He got a couple of good years out of him, but this is often how these large contracts to older players work out at the end.

2) John Schneider survives another year as Blue Jays manager thanks to Ross Atkins

Not only did Atkins survive this brutal season, but John Schneider is also back as the team's manager. This doesn't come as a major surprise considering all reporting suggested that no major changes will be made, but that doesn't mean that this is the right decision.

Is it all Schneider's fault that the team underperformed as much as they did this season? Of course not. Virtually everyone not named Vladimir Guerrero Jr. failed to reach expectations, and there were a bevy of injuries as well. Still, in parts of three seasons in charge, can we really say that Schneider has elevated this team?

The Jays might've squeaked into the postseason in 2023, but they were the third Wild Card team and scored one run in two games. They were a Wild Card team the season prior and failed to win a single game as well. They've had way too much talent the last couple of years to not do anything in October. The players deserve blame for that, obviously, but it also feels as if many other managers would've gotten more out of this team.

He'd be mostly a fall guy, but letting Schneider go would've shown the fans that this past season was not acceptable. Atkins, unfortunately, won't do that.

1) Bo Bichette will not get traded this offseason with Ross Atkins set to return

No Blue Jay had more of a lost season in 2024 than Bo Bichette. Not only was he limited to just 81 games played, but in those games, he had by far his worst offensive season.

The 26-year-old slashed .225/.277/.322 with four home runs and 31 RBI. He made the AL All-Star team in two of the last three years entering the 2024 campaign and received MVP votes in each of those seasons, and went from that, to a pretty useless player at the plate.

The Jays not trading Bichette this offseason makes sense, as he'd be sold for pennies on the dollar. The reason he's on this list, though, is that he should've already been traded. With the chances being so slim that Toronto will keep both Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. past the 2025 season with both of them set to hit free agency, the Jays had to ensure that they'd get a monster return for at least one of them. Bichette would be the easier player to move.

For whatever reason, Atkins believes this team can contend in 2025, so a Bichette trade was never going to happen. The longer he remains in Toronto, the more likely it is that he's either traded at the deadline for little compensation, or that he walks in free agency for no compensation.