Toronto Blue Jays hire Cleveland Indians’ Ross Atkins as GM

Mark Shapiro is apparently going to put a similar imprint on the Blue Jays that he put on the Indians. I wonder how Blue Jays fans feel about this.

by Michael Bode

Cleveland Indians vice president of player personnel Ross Atkins has been hired into the Toronto Blue Jays general manager position according to MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian. The other finalist was the Blue Jays interim general manager Tony LaCava.

Can confirm reports that Ross Atkins, Indians VP of player personnel, is taking the Blue Jays general manager job.

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) December 3, 2015

The Toronto GM position will be the first time in Atkins professional career he will work outside the Indians organization. Atkins was drafted as a pitcher out of Wake Forest in the 38th round of the 1995 MLB Amateur Draft and spent five seasons in the Indians minor league system. He reached the Double A level in Akron before transitioning into a front office job in 1999. Atkins worked his way up through the organizational ranks to his current position.

Of course, Atkins will retain some semblance of stability even in Toronto as he has also worked for Mark Shapiro his entire career, who is now the president of baseball operations for the Blue Jays.

Shapiro is reportedly also considering former Indians and Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge for a front office position of some kind.

Earlier this offseason, the Indians promoted Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff with many suspecting it was done in part to protect them from being similarly poached by Shapiro.

Atkins though has been a relatively hot name on the general manager front this offseason as he also was a contender for the Los Angeles Angels general manager position after being interviewed. Atkins received respect throughout the MLB community from the large turnaround in the Indians minor league farm system after he took over as director of player development in 2006. IBI’s Tony Lastoria gave more insight into the systematic approach Atkins took with the Indians player development in an interview during the 2014 Spring Training.

To fill Atkins role, the Indians likely will turn to their player development staff to replace him. Carter Hawkins has admirably filled Atkins previous position of director of player development, which has included bolstering the Indians connections with the research-based development community. And, the player development side of the Indians would still be in the capable hands of Eric Binder, who has worked beside Hawkins since being hired from the Texas Baseball Ranch.

The Indians might as well hire from within to back-fill positions as the rest of MLB sure seem to constantly be after their front office members.

Originally published at www.waitingfornextyear.com on December 3, 2015.