"Not great": Dan Shulman gives blunt opinion on Blue Jays GM
Toronto Blue Jays broadcaster Dan Shulman might generally be supportive of the team, but it’s clear he’s not willing to speak his mind, either.
In an interview that dropped today on the Behind the Play podcast hosted by Alex Adams, Shulman was asked his opinion about the job that Ross Atkins has done as Blue Jays GM since taking over the job in 2015.
Shulman chose to answer the question by focusing primarily on the 2022 offseason when the team traded away Teoscar Hernandez to Seattle and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno to Arizona in two high-profile deals.
The team focused on pitching and defence the following year, landing Erik Swanson and Daulton Varsho in the process. However, since the trades, the team has had two up-and-down campaigns, while Arizona advanced to the World Series last year.
“I mean … they signed Lourdes Gurriel Jr, that works out great. Trade him away … that trade’s not very popular, although Dalton Varsho is a terrific player and has helped them in many ways. But you know, the Gurriel/[Gabriel] Moreno trade, they gave up a lot to get Dalton Varsho. So you sign, you trade for Teoscar Hernandez, great, but then you trade him away, and that trade’s not very popular,” Shulman told Adams.
Atkins’ teams have made the postseason in 2016, 2020, 2022, and 2023 but have yet to win a playoff series since the 2016 ALDS sweep of the Texas Rangers.
“It’s not as negative as the haters want it to be, but obviously, overall, it’s not great. I think some of the acquisitions that they don’t get credit for, they should get more credit for. But the two things that jump out to me on the other side of the ledger is the farm system hasn’t produced consistently enough, in my mind, that it should have,” Shulman added. “I think if the farm system had produced more, maybe they don’t have to make this trade or that trade or sign that guy, so they don’t have enough money for this guy who would have been better, that sort of thing. So one, I don’t think the farm system has produced as much as it should, and I think trading Gurriel and Teoscar in the same winter was a lot… I think they overcompensated a little too much.”
Shulman’s full interview is available below.
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