Will Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro Ever Be as Well-liked as Masai Ujiri?
Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro | Mark Blinch/GettyImages
A second major Toronto sports team’s president was relieved of their duties this past week – and it’s the one few expected. Masai Ujiri departs the Raptors organization as a beloved figure that brought a championship to a team that many thought would never see one.
As far as sports executives go, few have come close to achieving Ujiri’s popularity, or to earning the kind of trust fans had in the decisions he made. While it would have seemed silly to ask the question even a few months ago, a promising Blue Jays season makes the question worth asking:
Will Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro Ever Be as Well-liked as Masai Ujiri?
How will Atkins and Shapiro's legacies compare to Ujiri's?
What they Inherited
Division Series - Texas Rangers v Toronto Blue Jays - Game Five | Tom Szczerbowski/GettyImages
Masai Ujiri and Mark Shapiro were hired at very different times for their respective teams.
The Raptors hired Ujiri to right a ship that had been off-course for the bulk of its existence.
The team had only made the playoffs a handful of times, while winning a total of one round, had struggled to retain franchise cornerstones like Vince Carter and Chris Bosh.
Shapiro was brought in to replace franchise mainstay Paul Beeston at a time that team ownership decided it was time for new direction – but the team itself was doing just fine. In fact, in late August of 2015, the Blue Jays were in the midst of a 42-16 run, spurred on by one of the most exciting (and productive) trade deadlines in franchise history – leading to their first AL East title in over two decades.
By the time Alex Anthopoulos departed at season’s end and was replaced by Ross Atkins, while fans were displeased to see their homegrown GM go, they felt the team was, for the most part, headed in the right direction.
Toronto Raptors Victory Parade & Rally | Vaughn Ridley/GettyImages
What they’ve Achieved
Obviously, if the sole measure is number of rings, there’s no competing with Ujiri’s resume in Toronto.
But to be fair to Shapiro and Atkins, they’ve done more than many are willing to give them credit for.
While Anthopoulos rightfully gets credit for building the foundation that led the 2016 team to the ALCS, Atkins made plenty of moves to shore up that team – like bringing back eventual 20-game-winner JA Happ, acquiring Francisco Liriano as starting depth, or bulking up the bullpen with unlikely success stories in Jason Grilli and Joaquin Benoit.
And since tearing that rendition of the team down and building around Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, plenty of shrewd moves led to a competitive window few thought possible during the lengthy drought between the ’93 World Series and the Bat Flip.
Division Series - Texas Rangers v Toronto Blue Jays - Game Five | Tom Szczerbowski/GettyImages
Turning Liriano into Teoscar Hernandez, taking a flyer on players like Marcus Semien, choosing Kevin Gausman over reigning Cy Young winner Robbie Ray, and being willing to take deadline swings on players like Jordan Hicks are moves that the current Jays’ administration deserves credit for.
Ujiri, of course, made franchise-altering moves – something far more possible in a sport where one or two players can completely transform a team’s identity. The Kawhi for Demar trade brought a tried and true superstar to the team, at the expense of the first franchise leader that expressed a real desire to stay here.
But Ujiri brought far more to the Raptors than the many moves that he made. He brought a swagger. A sense of confidence. An identity. “We the North”. “F&%k Brooklyn”. “We don’t give a s#*t about it”.
He told fans it was ok to believe, and he delivered on that.
Where They’ve Erred
Milwaukee Brewers v Toronto Blue Jays | Mark Blinch/GettyImages
You don’t have to go far to find a Jays fan willing to criticize the team’s current regime, and it’s been that way since the very beginning.
It began with the disappointing departure of Edwin Encarnacion, and continued through a tough rebuild highlighted by disappointing returns on seemingly valuable assets like J.A. Happ, Marcus Stroman and Josh Donaldson. The excitement of three post-season appearances since 2020 have been dampened by questionable pitching decisions and a lack of transparency surrounding just who was responsible for making them.
Ujiri, of course, did not have a perfect tenure with the Raptors. Plenty have questioned the team’s direction since the 2019 Championship. Think Aron Baynes, Demarre Carroll, or the underwhelming or nonexistent returns for players like Norm Powell, Pascal Siakam, and Fred Vanvleet.
Whether it’s stubbornness, a loss of passion, or simply a case of waiting too long for the next real opportunity, the second half of Ujiri’s time in Toronto was much more underwhelming than the first.
But even through that dark period, you knew that when Ujiri stepped up to a microphone, what you were going to get from him was something close to how he truly felt.
This is an area that Shapiro nor Atkins will likely ever live up to, and why achieving Ujiri’s level of popularity is likely impossible.
However…
Ujiri is an awfully high bar for Shapiro and Atkins to reach – it’s like asking if Lyle Overbay could ever be as beloved as Carlos Delgado in Blue Jays lore. But perhaps a more achievable bar is the afore-mentioned homegrown executive who’s currently in charge of the Atlanta Braves.
Division Series - Texas Rangers v Toronto Blue Jays - Game Five | Tom Szczerbowski/GettyImages
People forget just how willing many fans were to show Anthopoulous the door after 2014 – and five years of failing to reach expectations, while also being very adept at saying a whole lot at media conferences without really saying anything at all.
Those calls were only intensifying going into 2015 with a roster that had numerous rookies in key spots, a shortstop who could no longer field his position, and a parade of left fielders unable to catch the ball after Michael Saunders got injured during Spring Training. The entire AA narrative changed after he acquired Troy Tulowitzki and David Price, and the team went on its cartoonish run.
And if the Blue Jays somehow go on to achieve something similar in the next year or two, fans will have no problem forgetting the follies of the first decade of Shapatkins.
This article was originally published on jaysjournal.com as Will Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro Ever Be as Well-liked as Masai Ujiri?.
