TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays locked in their leadership group Monday with extensions for Ross Atkins and John Schneider.<\/p>\n
Atkins\u2019 five-year deal runs through 2031, while Schneider\u2019s covers 2028.<\/p>\n
The moves follow Toronto\u2019s 94-win season, American League East title and a seven-game World Series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers last year.<\/p>\n
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Schneider, 46, has a 303-257 record since taking over as manager in July 2022 and was runner-up for American League manager of the year last season.<\/p>\n
He is entering his fourth full season as skipper after the Blue Jays picked up his 2026 option last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchneids has been, and will continue to be, an exceptional leader and manager in professional baseball because of his unwavering commitment to players,\u201d said Atkins.<\/p>\n
Schneider is the 14th manager in franchise history and succeeded Charlie Montoyo in July 2022, helping guide Toronto to a wild-card berth that season.<\/p>\n
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The Blue Jays were swept in the wild-card round in 2022 by Seattle and again in 2023 by Minnesota before slipping to a 74-win season in 2024.<\/p>\n
Toronto rebounded in 2025, securing the division title on the final day of the regular season and advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1993.<\/p>\n
Schneider, a native of Princeton, N.J., has spent more than two decades with the organization after being drafted by Toronto in 2002 and later working his way through the minor-league system.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI am ecstatic to continue leading the Blue Jays as we work to bring our incredible fans a championship team,\u201d said Schneider. \u201cIt\u2019s been a privilege to be part of this organization for nearly 25 years, and the work the Blue Jays continue to do excites me every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atkins, 52, was hired in December 2015 and is the second-longest tenured general manager in franchise history.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays reached the post-season five times under his leadership, but won playoff games only in 2016 before last year\u2019s run.<\/p>\n
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Toronto struggled through a rebuild that bottomed out in 2018 and 2019 before returning to contention during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoss has done an outstanding job in building a deep foundation with an accomplished Baseball Operations team, best-in-class resources, and a collaborative culture,\u201d said Mark Shapiro, Toronto’s president and CEO. \u201cI am a strong supporter of stability and continuity, and Ross continues to make us better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro signed a five-year contract extension in December 2025, keeping him with the club through the 2030 season.<\/p>\n
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Atkins helped secure franchise cornerstone Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year, US$500-million extension in April 2025, one of the richest deals in team history.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays added pitchers Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce, along with third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, in a series of high-profile moves this off-season.<\/p>\n
The club did lose star shortstop Bo Bichette in free agency in January after he signed a three-year, $126-million contract with the New York Mets.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays open their regular season Friday against the Athletics at Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays locked in their leadership group Monday with extensions for Ross Atkins and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,88,54086,76,6469,3964,3685,57,15813,822,4,61,3633,619,1949,1414,282,70,2553,93],"class_list":["post-638934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-bo-bichette","tag-cody-ponce","tag-dylan-cease","tag-franchise-history","tag-john-schneider","tag-kazuma-okamoto","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mark-shapiro","tag-minnesota","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-ross-atkins","tag-seattle","tag-the-athletics","tag-the-blue-jays","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays","tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116278800149151463","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}