TORONTO – Whether or not it was on the draft, the commerce deadline, or throughout free company, Ross Atkins has at all times emphasised the significance of values throughout his decade as common supervisor of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Each time there was a possible addition to the staff, Atkins by no means failed to say their “excessive character.”
He believes that coverage has paid off in 2025, with the Blue Jays reaching the World Collection for the primary time in 32 years largely due to their cohesiveness and dedication to one another.
“I’ve at all times been taught and discovered and believed strongly that hiring and identification of — whether or not it’s gamers, coaches, scouts, anybody that’s serving to help the group — that hiring’s an important factor we do,” stated Atkins throughout a information convention on Friday earlier than Recreation 1 of the World Collection. “In case you do this with values which might be vital to you, then over time, that’s going to repay for you.”
Atkins stated that centring the staff’s personnel coverage and the ensuing ambiance is one thing that he and supervisor John Schneider truly spoke about earlier within the week.
“The factor that I take into consideration probably the most is the relationships, the those that now we have employed and the those that now we have grown with collectively,” stated Atkins, who was employed because the staff’s GM in December 2015. “I’ve at all times felt there’s an enormous group of individuals right here that I’m working with that can, for certain, be lifelong relationships and lifelong friendships.
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“This success — albeit we’re not executed, with work to do — not simply this yr, however nicely past, I feel simply emboldens that feeling of how highly effective these relationships can be.”
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Toronto led all of Main League Baseball with 49 come-from-behind wins within the common season, with 12 of these victories coming when the Blue Jays trailed by a minimum of three runs.
In addition they rallied from a 2-0 deficit to the Seattle Mariners within the best-of-seven American League Championship Collection. The climactic Recreation 7 in Toronto was capped by George Springer’s three-run homer within the seventh inning, undoing Seattle’s early 3-1 lead in that sequence finale.
“I feel that’s what types an excellent staff. It’s expertise and it’s gamers, however it’s folks,” stated Schneider earlier than the World Collection started. “I feel that we’ve executed such an exceptional job of making a tradition the place persons are simply welcome.
“It’s what we’ve grasped on to, the usual we’ve set. Not simply the kind of participant we wish, however the kind of folks we wish in right here, too.”
Schneider has been with the Blue Jays group since 2002 when he was drafted within the thirteenth spherical of that yr’s draft. He retired from enjoying after the 2007 season on account of three concussions suffered that yr, then grew to become a minor-league supervisor for the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Blue Jays in 2008, working his manner up by way of the franchise’s completely different ranges of ball.
He stated that the relationships which were in-built Toronto throughout Atkins’s tenure has helped create the tradition that made the Blue Jays (94-68) playoff run potential.
“I feel that if you’re making an attempt to determine a profitable setting and a profitable group that may do it repeatedly, that folks come into play,” stated Schneider. “Folks which might be going to push issues ahead and never be happy.
“Even this yr, once we acquired (infielder Andres Gimenez) and signed (Anthony Santander) and signed Max (Scherzer), we had been speaking about what that will do for folks round them too and the place the those that we had already had been of their profession and of their lives.”
Schneider stated it was additionally a think about July as Main League Baseball’s commerce deadline approached and the Blue Jays had been gearing up for a deep post-season run.
“It was cool to have these conversations with Ross, understanding what we had been doing on the time, and never making an attempt to disrupt that,” stated Schneider. “You wish to attempt to add folks which might be going to assist.
“So Seranthony (Dominguez), who’s about as selfless as there may be, Louis Varland, Ty France, they’re good items for what we have already got, too. We made it a degree to be actually conscious of it this yr and, once more, it’s been a pair years within the making to get up to now.”
Varland and France had been traded to Toronto by the Minnesota Twins on July 31 for Alan Roden and Kendry Rojas. Varland, who has turn out to be a fixture within the Blue Jays bullpen within the post-season, stated that the sturdy tradition on his new staff was instantly obvious.
“From the teaching workers to the gamers to the help workers to the cooks, like all people’s nice, all people’s pleasant, welcoming,” he stated. “I noticed this the opposite day, ‘the Glue Jays.’
“That’s, like, an ideal technique to sum it up. All people’s so shut and all people’s an excellent man or woman.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Oct. 26, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
