Ross Atkins To Take Over As GM Of The Toronto Blue Jays

A longtime Cleveland Indians executive, Atkins was named Toronto’s GM and executive vice-president of baseball operations on Thursday.

As for LaCava, Joel Sherman tweets that he’s expected to remain with the organization as an assistant GM and senior vice president.

Ross Atkins, former Cleveland Indians vice president of player personnel, has accepted a position with the Toronto Blue Jays as their executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager according to ESPN. He succeeded Paul Beeston, who retired at the end of October. He was once a pitcher in the Indians’ organization as well.

Anthopoulos announced shortly after the team’s elimination that he’d declined a contract offer to return.

Sports points out, the hiring of Atkins represents the 13th team to change general managers since last year’s Winter Meetings in San Diego. IBI’s Tony Lastoria gave more insight into the systematic approach Atkins took with the Indians player development in an interview during the 2014 Spring Training. Well, it looks like Shapiro made a decision to hire a familiar face in Atkins instead of removing the interim tag from LaCava. The 38-year-old Montreal native would only say he didn’t feel like it would be the right fit, adding it was his choice to leave.

Atkins will be introduced during a news conference Friday morning at Rogers Centre, where he’ll discuss his plans for the defending American League East champions. Other players who were acquired in trades, such as Carlos Carrasco, Yan Gomes, Corey Kluber and Carlos Santana, worked their way through the minor league system before reaching Progressive Field.