Ross Atkins wasn’t expecting to get a call from Cleveland. Despite winning 10 games and striking out 91 batters for the 1995 Wake Forest Demon Deacons, he thought his playing career was over. Instead, he found out he was taken in the 38th round of the MLB Draft.
“I was quite frankly surprised to be drafted,” he told FanGraphs, years later.
Showing just how unexpected the news was, Atkins asked a favor after Cleveland’s scouting department gave him the news.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m enrolled in one last class to graduate, and part of it is writing a thesis. Can I finish that before I report.”
He would finish his thesis, but not on time. Cleveland made it clear that his best option would be to report to the club and put off his homework. Still, the work would end up paying dividends in what eventually became his full-time job.
“It was comparing baseball markets to financial markets, for an economics class that I was taking,” he recalled later.
Atkins is heavily involved in the finances of baseball, as general manager and EVP of baseball operations for the American League champion Toronto Blue Jays. As a member of the AL East, Toronto competes in the same division as the deep-pocketed Yankees and Red Sox, as well as the Orioles and Rays, the latter of whom have made a science—literally—out of spending money efficiently. The Jays came out on top last year and came within an eyelash of defeating the big-spending Dodgers in last year’s World Series.
He’s also likely a much better negotiator than when he came out on the wrong side of that request for extra time from Cleveland. After spending five seasons in Cleveland’s minor league system, including an 8-4 year with Kinston in 1997, Atkins moved to the front office, where his first job was as a Spanish language translator for a Cleveland minor leaguer.
He gradually rose to be in charge of Cleveland’s Latin American operations before heading the development and player personnel departments. After 15 years in the Cleveland organization, he was hired by the Jays in 2015, where he now faces the prospect of a return trip to the Fall Classic.
Atkins has been aggressive this offseason, using Toronto’s run of success to help attract free agents north of the border, which has traditionally been a tough sell. This year, the Jays were able to sign pitching ace Dylan Cease and Japanese slugger Kazuma Okamoto, using their potential value as the pieces to get the Jays over the top as a selling point.
The frontline stars are added to a roster that’s still young and developing.
“I think if we’re not getting better as an organization at every capacity—you know that not just the players but every staff member—then then we’re not going to win the World Series,” Atkins said. “So, each one of us has to be thinking that way.”
The returning players have to also get over the emotional scar from coming so close to a title in 2025. The Jays led with one out in the ninth inning of Game Seven before the Dodgers tied the score. Toronto loaded the bases in their half of the ninth and just barely had the potential Series-winning run called out at the plate on a close force out.
“I do think that they’re in a more motivated position,” Atkins said of the returning players. “So, it’s such an interesting thing. It’s why we do it. It’s why we love sport, to be, you know, to feel pressure, to feel expectations. You certainly don’t do it to experience let down, but we understand that’s a part of it, and how you respond to it’s the most important thing.”
Atkins has also built a farm system that was able to supply the Jays with key players down the stretch last season, most notably Trey Yesavage, who went from a 2024 draftee out of East Carolina to Toronto’s most reliable pitcher in the postseason, moving all the way up the organization’s ladder in one season.
“I mean, we we’ve talked about this with a lot of different pitchers over the past, and every individual is different,” Atkins said. “Every case is different. We’ll ensure that we’re putting them in the safest possible position while trying to win as many games as possible. So, it’s the kind of thing that you do have to think about ahead of time. If there are ways to put them in the best positions for the end of the season, to be there for us in October and hopefully November. But we feel like the work is done on that front and it is going to be manageable.”
And, if a promising minor league prospect wants to finish up an important paper before he leaves school, Atkins might just decide to hear him out.
