Ross Atkins shockingly wasn't to blame for the Blue Jays’ latest free-agent failure

It has been a disappointing offseason for the Toronto Blue Jays. There's no sense in beating around the bush. There's still time to salvage it — there's always time — but it's hard to place much faith in such a consistently underperforming front office.

Ross Atkins has been through this song and dance before. The Blue Jays talk a big game early in free agency, then gradually fade into obscurity.

We saw this last winter, when Shohei Ohtani felt painfully close to choosing Toronto, only to reverse course and sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers. From there, Toronto failed to acquire the requisite star-power to resolve the sting of whiffing on this generation's most coveted free agent.

When this offseason arrived, Atkins and the front office were positioned in the thick of Juan Soto rumors, only for him to spurn Toronto for another National League team. Moreover, the Blue Jays were connected to several fallback options, such as Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, and Teoscar Hernandez.

None wound up in a Blue Jays uniform.

The Hernandez whiff felt especially galling, as Hernandez is a former Blue Jay whose close relationship with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is well-documented. Toronto is actively trying to convince Guerrero to stick around long term — that this team, this organization, can sustain a winner. Landing Hernandez would have been a nice feather in Atkins' cap.

That said, we can't blame the Blue Jays GM for his failure to land the reigning HR Derby champ.

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Teoscar Hernandez was never leaving the Dodgers, no matter what Ross Atkins and the Blue Jays offered

If anything, Hernandez gets credit for so successfully leveraging the interest of other teams, such as Boston or Toronto, when he so clearly wanted to re-sign in Los Angeles all along. Hernandez won the World Series in a Dodgers uniform last season and experienced the greatest individual success of his career. What possible motivation could he have to leave?

The only risk was another team blowing the Dodgers out of the water financially, which hardly ever happens. And, in this case, the top dollar wasn't even a concern for Hernandez. He just wanted to get to a reasonable place with the Dodgers.

"I had my mind clear that I wanted to come back and I was going to do anything in my power to make it work and be back with the Dodgers," he told ESPN. "For me, money wasn't an issue."

He went on the explain the unique appeal of playing in Los Angeles.

"They give me the confidence. I didn't get that really in other places. They trust me in everything that I can give them. That was one of the biggest things for me, that pushed me to do the best job that I can do in a Dodgers uniform."

So, not only did Hernandez just win a ring with the Dodgers, but he was truly happy and confident in a way he never was before. Maybe we can ding the Blue Jays for not inspiring these same feelings in Hernandez during his six-year stint with the franchise, but frankly, no team can match the Dodgers' spending power or competitive DNA. That just helps everyone feel welcome, like they're contributing to something greater.

Toronto needs to get its act together and make a few additions, preferably sooner than later, but Hernandez was never a realistic target. Such is life.