When Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro held his end-of-season press conference on Thursday, he took great care to acknowledge the fans' frustration with his team — but said nothing to soothe it.
Shapiro made it clear that general manager Ross Atkins would stay in his role and praised his track record. He expressed confidence in manager John Schneider's abilities. He didn't announce any changes to the coaching staff on the hitting side after a down season offensively. He warned against expecting 'a dramatic philosophical shift' in payroll.
The team president even said that he didn't feel like the much-maligned decision to pull José Berríos early in Game 2 of Toronto's playoff series was a mistake — and paraphrased the Atkins explanation that the strategy was fundamentally a success because the team gave up only two runs in the game.