Atkins Speaks!: Ross to the Max

On Max Scherzer, finishing touches, rotation depth, the Vladdy Question, Yariel, Giménez, WAR, and more!

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Max Scherzer is a deeply interesting dude to listen to, as was apparent here on Friday when he met the media via Zoom for the first time since officially becoming a member of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Of course, this is not a Scherzer Speaks piece, interesting though that might be. It’s also not a Boras Speaks piece, despite the interesting wrinkle that the “uber-agent” was involved in the call as well. This is an Atkins Speaks piece. And though it will likely be a shorter version of one of those than we’re normally used to, seeing as the occasion was mostly about the arrival of a future Hall of Famer, the Jays’ GM did have a few interesting things to say as this critical offseason nears its end with some heavy lifting seemingly—possibly—hopefully—still left to do.

What we have here, then, is a full transcript of everything Ross—and only Ross—said, save for the boilerplate off the top, along with my various thoughts on his replies.

You know the drill! It’s time for Atkins Speaks!…

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Had you ever tried to acquire Scherzer before this winter?

Yeah, we've had discussions before on the trade front. And I think every team in baseball, when they think about Max Scherzer, (he) is the best at what he does in the game and, you know, first ballot Hall of Famer, has the reputation for being one of the best competitors in sport—not just baseball. So, I can't imagine there's a GM that's been doing it for more than five or six years that hasn't tried to do that in some way.

I’d suggest that last bit feels like like Ben Cherington erasure, except that Cherington probably did have some Scherzer discussions back when he was in Boston. Hard to believe he’s done so in his five-plus years in Pittsburgh though. But… sure… fair enough.

What does bringing in a Max Scherzer do for the culture in the clubhouse?

Yeah, I mean I think it's the—the accolades, like we could talk about for a long time. We look at stats and accolades all the time as executives, as staff members, as players—players are always talking about accomplishments and accolades. And there's no one, really—there aren't many people in the game that have more than Max does. And it's not about that, it's about how he got to it. And how he got to those accomplishments—the competitiveness, I've mentioned.

I think that when someone has an elite level of competitiveness that raises the bar for others. It is something in professional sport that is hard to quantify, but you can certainly feel it. And then just his reputation as a human being. How important his family is to him, how important his teammates to him are, and then, back to the competitiveness, how important winning is to him. He's going to raise the bar for all of us here, and that certainly includes me.

Ross is ready to run through a brick wall! He’s gonna make so many waiver claims! He’s gonna learn even more jargon! He’s gonna miss on so many more free agents it’ll make your head spin!

What are you still looking to do this winter with respect to your roster?

Yeah, I mean, we'll never stop on that front, and if there's a way to do it, I think—if there's a way to upgrade any aspect, whether it's run prevention, run scoring, to our bullpen. It would be hard to add to our rotation at this point, unless it's just depth. And then, on the position player group, if there's a way to increase our depth we'll look to do that. I think at this point it would require a trade for us to add to the team. Not necessarily—it doesn't have to—but most likely would be the case.

Aaaaand here’s the stuff that no one wants to hear—outside, perhaps, the utterly insufferable types who seem to enjoy the sport of hating on Ross and making everyone else as miserable as they are more than they do actual baseball.

We may have expected it—I know I certainly did—and Atkins may be leaving the door open somewhat for another significant move to come, but he’s also being very careful not to raise expectations for a J.D. Martinez, let alone an Alex Bregman.

Granted, Atkins always speaks like this, always keeps things close to the vest, and Boras being there may have given him incentive to be even more cautious about appearing desperate. Plus, for what little it’s worth—and it’s not much, seeing as I don’t think I’ve ever felt more like all the supposed insiders have no more knowledge of what’s actually going on than the average person reading the headlines than I have this winter—it continues to be suggested that they’re in the conversation…

But contrast Atkins’ remarks here with what Red Sox GM Craig Breslow recently said on a MassLive podcast with Chris Cotillo.

“We’re still very much engaged in trying to bring in a right-handed hitter, obviously one that we think can be a difference-maker. We haven’t been able to line up (on that) yet, but the offseason is still underway. I think it’s fair to say that in some respects, maybe the roster is a bit incomplete. But we’re going to continue to work really hard to try to round it out.”

A thing like that sure would be nice to hear sometimes, wouldn’t it?

What does your rotation depth look like?

Yeah, Yariel (Rodríguez) will come in stretched out and competing for that fifth spot, and remain depth for us. And we'll make a decision about halfway to three quarters of the way through Spring Training, to try to put our pieces in the best positions to be successful. Really excited about Jake Bloss and that addition, and Adam Macko being in our Triple-A rotation. Eric Lauer as depth. The acquisition of Kloffenstein. Feel like we have some good pieces to provide depth, but we'll keep looking to add if we can.

Lauer hive rise up. The former Padre and Brewer pitched in Korea last season, hoping to get back on track after a rough (6.56 ERA/7.41 FIP) final season in Milwaukee, but didn't quite get there, posting a 4.93 ERA over seven starts. Yet! His FIP looked better (4.04), his walk, strikeout, and home run rates looked better—and more in line with his solid ‘21 and ‘22 seasons. If the 29-year-old can find his fastball—his velo dropped from 93.3 to 91.2 between 2022 and ‘23, along with his numbers—Ross may even be right to put him in that group.

Overall, though, the Jays appear again to be in a tough spot on this front. Health early on is going to be incredibly important for this rather fragile project of theirs. Alek Manoah and potential deadline acquisitions will be able to help later on in the summer, but someone like Bloss or Macko taking a big step forward this spring sure would help. I mean… we’re out here bigging up Lauer and a guy who was non-tendered by the directionless Cardinals.

As for Rodríguez, there’s certainly no harm in stretching him out early, especially as insurance in case of a spring injury in the rotation. But, personally, I know that I'd certainly like to see him unleashed as a one-inning reliever. During his final year in Japan, Yariel pitched to a 1.15 ERA with a 0.915 WHIP over 54 2/3 innings in 56 games. Let's see that. Where the hell is Ryan Yarbrough anyway?

How are you looking at Vlad's deadline and the coming week-and-a-half?

Yeah, I mean, today's about Max, and today's about the team that is in place—and Vladdy's certainly a huge part of that. You all know our desire to have him here for a long time, and we'll continue to work towards that.

Alright, so that’s more like it, no?

I may be naïve, I may have to cope especially hard about a potential end-of-season extension or post-FA reunion if one doesn’t happen in the next week or so, but nothing about the Blue Jays’ offseason has led me to believe they don’t understand the gravity of the situation they find themselves in. They threw money at Anthony Santander and Max Scherzer. They spent on the bullpen like never before. They chased Soto, Burnes, and Sasaki.

Yes, some of that was about salvaging 2025, but not those latter pursuits—or last year’s Ohtani chase. They want to keep this thing going. They want stars to build around for the future. They can’t want to have invested in “first in class” facilities and cutting edge amenities just to have their on-field product shrink up and take two more steps backward before reemerging from the abyss years from now when other teams will have caught up to those massive expenditures.

Vlad says he wants it. Atkins says they want it. Fans absolutely want it. Ownership would be crazy not to want it. I understand that hope and optimism are dangerous things when it comes to this team, but they’d be as stupid as everyone thinks they are if they can’t figure this out. I don’t think they’re that stupid.

Is the goal to keep Rodríguez stretched out and does doing that with a player in your big league bullpen work anymore?

I think for a short period of time it can. You want to be very careful and cautious of bouncing guys around and going in and out of different roles. There are certain pitchers that have proven the ability to handle that, but for the most part we want to make sure that we're creating as much consistency for them as possible. So, I think early on in the season that could the case, and just so much depends upon his performance, the performance of our rotation, the performance of our bullpen, how he's fitting in to one of those two pieces, to really define that. But once it does take shape we'll be shooting for consistency.

OK.

How do assess the work you and your staff have done this offseason, given the high profile additions and whiffs?

Yeah, everyone always forgets Gimmy. I'm fired up about Andrés Giménez, man. There's a lot of work that goes into every offseason, and we were fortunate to be in talks that got very deep with the players that you mentioned. But feel great about the team, feel—you know, time will tell, we'll see, but we are very confident that this is a good group of players that we look forward to gelling and look forward to winning a lot of baseball games.

First of all, yeah, I bet Ross is fired up about spending six years of Spencer Horwitz and $100 million on an all-glove player. DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW UNDERRATED DEFENCE IS???

Yes, Ross. Thank you. Yes. We get it.¹

Second of all, though most people probably will find themselves reading the tea leaves about whether the club is done or not from Atkins’ earlier statement about adding on the position player side “most likely” requiring a trade, I think this one feels a whole lot more like he’s telling us they’re basically done. Woof.

Does it get emotional for you when negotiating?

I find myself thinking about players and how they have to feel about emotions and success and failure, wins and losses. The more that I do this, the more that I realize you focus on things you can control. We talk about that all the time, we talk about it to players, and the quicker you can turn the page and focus on things that make you better, the better you're going to be.

Ross out here writing War and Peace with all these pages he’s turning. HEYO! Or… ughhhhh… maybe that should be WAR and Peace?

Brutal! OK, that’s it! We’re done!

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1. I like the move, and Giménez, plenty enough in a vacuum. But it would feel a whole lot better if there were fewer dead spots in this lineup for him to add to. Yeah, WAR is WAR, and pitchers are going to love having Kirk, Giménez, and Varsho up the middle defensively, but clearly he’d have fit much better with the Teo-Lourdes-Semien/Chapman group of secondary characters from a few years ago. We just want games to not feel hopeless if they fall behind by a couple runs, man!