From the Cleveland Indians, Ross Atkins is now the full-time General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. The announcement came on Thursday, after Atkins was chosen over Tony LaCava to replace Alex Anthopoulos.
The management will also have a new CEO in Mark Shapiro.
LaCava has been a part of the management team’s from office since October 2002. He has served as an interim General Manager and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations and Assistant General Manager.
He will still be a part of the team’s decision-making process. He will still be the point man at the winter meetings next week in Nashville.
Atkins, who will be named Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and General Manager, will have time for the transition.
Appointments in the next few weeks are in place, as the Blue Jays are in the process of rebuilding their front office. Things wouldn’t have fell into place if not for a new GM.
The official announcement of Atkins being with his new organization will be made on Friday at the Rogers Centre. There, he will get to discuss his plans for the Blue Jays as they defend the American League East title.
The 42-year-old from Greensboro, North Carolina, has a pretty impressive resume that focuses on player development. His accomplishments appears to be an edge as his current position entails him to make countless decisions and evaluations with regards to the players, coaches, and staff.
Atkins was a Vice President of player personnel in 2015. He helped in the negotiations, arbitration cases, dealing with roster-management issues and off-season planning.
He also worked in Cleveland’s player development department as a director from 2007-2010, then was promoted to Vice President in 2011-2014.
He ran the Latin American operations department from 2004-2006, and worked under John Farrell, a former Blue Jays manager, from 2001-2003 as assistant director of player development.
Cody Allen, Lonnie Chisenhall, Kyle Crockett, Tyler Holt, T.J House, Jason Kipnis, Roberto Perez, Jose Ramirez, and Danny Salazar are just some of the players who were developed under his management.
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