atkins believes the starting rotation as constituted is good enough for the blue jays to contend in 2016, that the club still needs some “complementary pieces,” and that the organizational depth needs to be fortified.
His outlook on 2017 and beyond is less clear.
“first and foremost, i see this team as very, very good. One that people will fear, and they’re going to be competitive,” said atkins. “really [competitive] windows, they’re difficult to talk about. You have to think about them, you have to plan for them, but it’s more about being flexible and agile, you have to face every decision and every threshold as it presents itself, and when you go through the process of making big decisions, understand how it impacts you in the short-term and long-term.
“i don’t foresee anything bigger than let’s think about how we can make this team as good as it can be, see where that takes us and then we’ll have to be prepared and think through what our alternatives are given our circumstances.”
in a lot of ways, there’s the rub.
Anthopoulos very much viewed the 2017-18 seasons as win-now seasons, too. He would have made those years the priority. If the blue jays don’t win next year and change course afterwards, atkins and shapiro are going to wear it.
