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 normal supervisor of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Each time there was a possible addition to the crew, 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 Sequence for the primary time in 32 years largely because of 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 or not it’s gamers, coaches, scouts, anybody that’s serving to assist the group — that hiring’s an important factor we do,” mentioned Atkins throughout a information convention on Friday earlier than Recreation 1 of the World Sequence. “If you happen to do this with values which can be essential to you, then over time, that’s going to repay for you.”
Atkins mentioned that centring the crew’s personnel coverage and the ensuing environment is one thing that he and supervisor John Schneider really spoke about earlier within the week.
“The factor that I take into consideration essentially the most is the relationships, the folks that we now have employed and the folks that we now have grown with collectively,” mentioned Atkins, who was employed because the crew’s GM in December 2015. “I’ve at all times felt there’s a giant 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 accomplished, with work to do — not simply this yr, however effectively past, I feel simply emboldens that feeling of how highly effective these relationships might 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 at the least three runs.
Additionally they rallied from a 2-0 deficit to the Seattle Mariners within the best-of-seven American League Championship Sequence. 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 collection finale.
“I feel that’s what varieties a great crew. It’s expertise and it’s gamers, however it’s individuals,” mentioned Schneider earlier than the World Sequence started. “I feel that we’ve accomplished such an outstanding job of making a tradition the place individuals 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 individuals 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 as a consequence of three concussions suffered that yr, then turned a minor-league supervisor for the rookie-level Gulf Coast League Blue Jays in 2008, working his means up via the franchise’s totally different ranges of ball.
He mentioned that the relationships which have been in-built Toronto throughout Atkins’s tenure has helped create the tradition that made the Blue Jays (94-68) playoff run attainable.
“I feel that once you’re attempting to ascertain a successful setting and a successful group that may do it repeatedly, that folks come into play,” mentioned Schneider. “Individuals which can 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 have been speaking about what that may do for individuals round them too and the place the folks that we had already have been of their profession and of their lives.”
Schneider mentioned it was additionally a consider July as Main League Baseball’s commerce deadline approached and the Blue Jays have been gearing up for a deep post-season run.
“It was cool to have these conversations with Ross, understanding what we have been doing on the time, and never attempting to disrupt that,” mentioned Schneider. “You wish to attempt to add individuals which can be going to assist.
“So Seranthony (Dominguez), who’s about as selfless as there’s, 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 have been traded to Toronto by the Minnesota Twins on July 31 for Alan Roden and Kendry Rojas. Varland, who has grow to be a fixture within the Blue Jays bullpen within the post-season, mentioned that the sturdy tradition on his new crew was instantly obvious.
“From the teaching workers to the gamers to the assist workers to the cooks, like everyone’s nice, everyone’s pleasant, welcoming,” he mentioned. “I noticed this the opposite day, ‘the Glue Jays.’
“That’s, like, an ideal approach to sum it up. All people’s so shut and everyone’s an incredible man or woman.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Oct. 26, 2025.
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