Why the baseball world wonders 'WTF Blue Jays' and what can Ross Atkins do about it?

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Remember the golden era of Blue Jays baseball? You know, all the way back in 2021, when so much hope and hype engulfed a young team on the rise?

Vlad Guerrero Jr. had just led all of baseball with a 48-homer season. Alek Manoah was on the rise. Fan favourite Teoscar Hernandez was hitting bombs (the Jays had four players with 29 homers or more) and a young Bo Bichette was mirroring the development of his Jays sidekick, Guerrero.

Everyone around baseball loved the Jays, it seemed, with many proclaiming the front office duo of president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins as baseball geniuses.

And now we have the Myles Straw era.

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Optimism has given way to outrage by a significant margin and it has spread far and wide, well beyond those suffering through the current malaise in Toronto and coast-to-coast in Canada.

At least there was a solid save face acquisition on Monday when the Jays signed slugging outfielder Anthony Santander to a five-year, US$92-million deal and infused a hurting lineup with a desperately needed booming bat.

It was a notable deal and in context a big one for Atkins, a potential impetus to save the off-season. But the Jays certainly need more as spring training nears, both to enhance the lineup and later the narrative around the team.

Nothing against Straw, who is the unwitting source of the latest Jays-directed vitriol, which may have reached a zenith after the team missed out on landing young Japanese pitching sensation Roki Sasaki last week in unbelievably hilarious fashion.

While it was a bold gamble on the part of a front office desperate to make something happen, taking on $11 million US of Straw’s wasted salary from the Guardians to free up $2 million in international bonus money was at best an ill-advised bold gamble and, at worst, reckless.

The issue of optics will be an ongoing story with the team, even if Atkins somehow manages to rise to the task and salvage another feckless off-season.

The reaction from the U.S. media (and baseball executives) has been both harsh and fair, but in a vastly different tone from one that relatively recently was reserved for the Jays. How much the national media’s criticism of the Jays perpetuates their struggles is hard to gauge, but it is real.

The latest indictment came in a highly detailed account from The Athletic, breaking down Sasaki’s courtship with the final three teams, including the Jays and eventual winners, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The piece referenced the reaction of one of the Jays’ “rival executives” who said: “My phone was blowing up all day with ‘wtf Jays.'”

Ouch.

So why WTF?

The list is a lengthy one — and growing — starting with the Straw saga that has the possibility of defining the current management era of Canada’s team.

So many in the sport wonder how the front office has gone this long without extending Guerrero Jr. and Bichette. It’s a head-scratcher all around, given how central the duo seemed to be in all that was so good about the Jays not long ago.

They wonder where Rogers Communications CEO Ed Rogers fits in all this. Whether his patience (and cash as it is expended on the baseball team) is infinite and whether he’s comfortable with the direction of the team.

They wonder why the Jays didn’t have the sense so many others around baseball did that it was all but a done deal that Sasaki was going to end up with the Dodgers. And even if they didn’t sense that, how could they be so reckless with the exorbitant Straw gamble?

They wonder why the Jays’ would-be-free-spending front office can’t get any of the top-end free agents to take their money. An exaggerated reaction, perhaps and one that was diluted some on Monday with the relatively hefty deal to Santander.

Feel free to wonder where Straw fits, if at all, beyond a temporary replacement for Daulton Varsho, who is expected to miss the start of the season as he recovers from shoulder surgery. He was, after all, buried in the minors by those wily, hoodwinking Guardians.

Then wonder whether Sasaki played the Jays on his visit to Toronto, dupe the team into believing they had a legit shot at landing him just because he toured the Rogers Centre and threw for them?

Or wonder how the Jays could take Guerrero Jr. to arbitration over a difference of less than $2 million one January and the next get themselves on the hook for $5 million in 2025 and $6 million the following season.

And most of all feel free to wonder: What’s next beyond the Santander deal? The Jays could certainly need at least one more bat and some pitching depth.

Can the narrative change? At least the latest acquisition was a start.

The off-season isn’t over yet for the Blue Jays and who knows, maybe it’s just beginning. But in too many ways it just feels that way.

Is the three weeks before pitchers and catchers enough time for this front office to continue to change the narrative? Or is it a case of WTF you see, is what you get?

rlongley@postmedia.com

X: @longleysunsport