Jays boss: Lost season is 'biggest disappointment'

After entering the 2024 season with great expectations, Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro is not happy about a team that's languishing in last place in the American League East and already looking toward next year.

But that doesn't mean that big changes are on the horizon.

"I'm not fixated on language, terming it a rebuild, terming it retool," Shapiro told reporters Wednesday. "We just need to get better. In the nine seasons I've been through, this is the biggest disconnect from expectations.

"It doesn't mean we haven't had difficult endings to seasons and it doesn't mean we haven't had seasons where we knew we were going to have a challenge competing, but this has been, by far, the biggest disconnect from our expectations and the biggest disappointment. We need to learn. We need to get better from it."

The Blue Jays are 52-62 and are 15½ games out of the division lead -- 11 games from a wild-card spot -- entering Thursday's games. They kept cornerstones Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette rather than dealing them away at the trade deadline. The club has been trying to move under the $237 million tax threshold after starting the season with a $244 million payroll.

This season just hasn't worked out like Shapiro -- and fans -- had hoped.

"We've done a good job identifying talent individually," Shapiro said. "We have not done as good a job, collectively, placing that talent on a roster to win. It's that connection between identification of talent, where I think we actually have done a pretty good job individually, but they haven't come together to produce the numbers that we would expect from a championship offense."

Shapiro didn't comment directly on the status of general manager Ross Atkins, who is in his ninth season with the Blue Jays, but did say that he's a "huge believer" in stability.

"I very rarely am unequivocal about anything," Shapiro said. "Commenting on a job status during the season, throughout my entire career when I've been asked about those things, is not something I have or will ever do. That being said, contextually, I'm a huge believer in stability and continuity and those are competitive advantages in professional sports. Reacting and changing don't necessarily mean improvement.

"We need to be better. We have to be better. Stability, continuity and making adjustments are where I'm focused right now."

On the field, Shapiro pointed to injuries and problems in the bullpen, which hasn't recovered from the loss of closer Jordan Romano, who appeared in just 15 games this season before he was shut down due to elbow pain.

"It's not a mystery why we fell short of expectations," Shapiro said. "The bullpen's been a challenge for us all season long, significant injuries to the three guys that we expected to anchor the back end, and then the backfill just wasn't there. So the bullpen's been an Achilles for us all year.

"And then there's a number of guys in the lineup that projected to have carrying levels of performance that didn't happen. I think the greater focus for us is how can we learn from that, what role did we play in that and how we can construct a team that's better next year. There's no doubt it's bitterly disappointing.

"... We believe that there's enough talent in place to build a contending, championship-caliber team next year. Had we not, we would have made a different set of decisions [at the trade deadline]."