Atkins weighs in on Berríos’ exit, Blue Jays’ needs for 2024

TORONTO — By his account, general manager Ross Atkins was not in the room where it happened.

The Blue Jays’ postseason exit via a two-game sweep by the Twins in the American League Wild Card Series came with one of the most scrutinized moves around the team in recent years: The decision to pull a dominant José Berríos after three-plus scoreless innings and just 47 pitches in Game 2.

Atkins addressed that strategy — and its origins — in his end-of-season media session on Saturday at Rogers Centre.

“[Pregame] meetings are [manager] John Schneider’s meetings,” Atkins said. “He has a group of individuals that he prepares with every day. … The group is the staff that’s on the field. It’s not the front office, I do not attend those meetings, and I certainly do not make those decisions. When that decision occurred, I found out about it when you did. When Yusei [Kikuchi] was getting warm in the first inning, it was obviously very clear that we had a strategy to potentially deploy.”

The goal was to force the Twins to go to their bench against the lefty Kikuchi, bringing in more right-handed hitters and potentially making life a bit easier for the Blue Jays’ righty-heavy bullpen.

The result was two runs for Minnesota and a 2-0 final score to end Toronto’s season.

“I was surprised when [Kikuchi] came in,” Atkins said. “We all knew the potential of that plan happening early in the game. The earlier it happened, the better for our bullpen. … There was not an influence from the [front] office that factored into that, other than maybe that it was an organizational strategy that had been communicated to players.”

Despite that level of communication with the players, the general feeling in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse after the loss was surprise.

Berríos had allowed three hits and one walk with five strikeouts at the time of his exit. Kikuchi, for as resurgent as he was in 2023, hadn’t pitched in relief in roughly 12 months. After Berríos yielded a walk to Royce Lewis to open the fourth inning, Kikuchi allowed the next three batters to reach before finally getting out of trouble.

“Obviously, everybody was surprised,” Vladimir Guerrero Jr. said through a club interpreter. “Everybody was surprised with the decision, but there are things you cannot control. You can ask yourself many times, but it’s not our decision. We were surprised.”

That naturally doesn’t mean that players were unaware of the plan, but given how well Berríos was pitching, it still came with question marks.

“We had a few different plans in place,” Schneider said after the loss. “José was aware of it. He had electric stuff. Tough to take him out, but I think with the way [the Twins] are constructed, you want to utilize your whole roster. It didn’t work out. … So, you can sit here and second-guess me, second-guess the organization, second-guess anybody. I get that.”

Atkins isn’t second-guessing anything, adamantly stating that he stands by his manager’s decision — and confirming that Schneider will be back at the helm next year. Besides, Atkins sees more pressing matters to tend to this offseason.

“Preventing runs was not our issue,” Atkins said. “The strategy is one that, in the end, was effective if we only allowed two runs. If we would have started the game and someone [had said], ‘You’re only going to allow two runs today,’ I would say, ‘That’s a decent outcome and we have a very good chance to win.’”

On the other side of the ball, the Blue Jays were met in the playoffs with the same issues they faced all season. Toronto managed just one extra-base hit in Game 2, finishing a combined 3-for-14 (.214) with runners in scoring position in the series.

It was a microcosm of a frustrating season that saw players like Guerrero, George Springer and Matt Chapman take a step back at the plate. The Blue Jays went from the second-best OPS in the Majors in 2022 (.760) to 11th this season (.746). Their home run total and slugging percentage also took significant hits.

That’s where this front office will spend most of its time from now until Spring Training.

“We have obviously been talking about it all year,” Atkins said. “I did 100% believe that it was going to turn for us — not just based on faith and hope, but based on trends that we were seeing: Batted-ball quality and historic power from many individuals in our lineup.”

Something needs to change. What that change will look like, however, is still unclear.

“We thought we were adjusting enough for the changes and for trends that we were seeing from the league, and specifically from teams that we play on a consistent basis,” Atkins said. “We weren’t able to find the solution. We’ve started the work again, and we’ll work tirelessly until we do.”