After being swept by the Boston Red Sox, and getting outscored 29-6 along the way, Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins knows his group needs to course correct before the idea of getting back into the playoff race becomes unrealistic.
The team acquired catcher Miguel Montero from the Chicago Cubs Monday and it may not be done adding new faces to the roster.
“These guys know and we know we have to better than we’ve been over the last 10 days,” Atkins told Mike Wilner and Shi Davidi on Baseball Central at Noon. “That was painful for us and I know our players are embarrassed.”
Two weak spots for the Blue Jays are in left field and at second base ever since Devon Travis went down with another injury. Atkins hinted the team could look in-house for help.
“There’s guys in triple-A that we would love to infuse into the lineup to help and bring some energy that have been hurt,” Atkins explained. “We acquired Michael Saunders and there’s the potential of him coming up and helping at some point but for the most part – beyond this acquisition of Miguel Montero – we’ll look to see if we can do better in second base and left field. We are doing that actively. We have been for some time.”
In addition to Saunders, Dalton Pompey, Darrell Ceciliani, Anthony Alford and Chris Coghlan are potential options for the Blue Jays to look to.
Atkins also said it’s too simplistic to label the Blue Jays as buyers or sellers.
“We have to think about our window now and our window in the coming years and think about sustaining a winning team,” he said. “There will be opportunities to acquire players that have control and can be a part of the team for the foreseeable future. There will be opportunities for guys that would be just be a ‘rental’ and there might be an opportunity for just a pure baseball trade where we trade from an area of depth to pick up in an area of need.”
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