Here's the latest from Atkins at the General Managers Meetings

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson's Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

TORONTO -- Let’s get to the fun part. These coming hours, weeks and days will be filled with reports and, eventually, those transactions you’ve been waiting for.

Last season never truly feels “over” until this week at the GM Meetings, where the wheels begin to turn toward next spring. Some of the Blue Jays’ decisions will be complicated and require bigger, philosophical questions -- like whether they’d be open to adding a second baseman on top of Ernie Clement -- but the top of their shopping list is simple.

“We’re going to look to add to our offense and look to add to our starting pitching,” Atkins told reporters in Las Vegas this week for the annual GM Meetings.

Which of those two markets needs to be prioritized, though? If the Blue Jays whiff on the top tier of hitters, led by a perfect target in Seiya Suzuki, the mid-tier hitters don’t inspire much excitement. If the Blue Jays land a big bat, though, the second tier of starters feels like it holds more value, offering plenty of options to slot in behind Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage and José Soriano.

This is also information season, when we all gather to decode the waves of front-office-speak. From the early days of the GM Meetings, here’s the latest from Atkins:

Will the market move quicker this offseason?

The consensus is that the looming CBA uncertainty could force a rush of movement in the coming weeks, just as it did in 2021, when the Blue Jays signed Kevin Gausman on Dec. 1.

“As far as the opportunities developing, I think it is probably moving a little bit quicker than in some years, but not drastically,” Atkins said. “Some of that is the shorter World Series and having some more time to prepare.”

Atkins went on to say that this point of the offseason is about being prepared, not “aggressive.” If you see the Blue Jays jump all the way in on a player in mid-November, that’s not because they’ve just noticed a shiny new thing. It’s because they’ve had 700 meetings with 900 people in 35 offices about every one of these players. All of their valuations and preference lists are done at this point, and now it’s about feeling out the players’ interest.

Pitching variables

The biggest factor, to start, is whether the Blue Jays will stretch out Spencer Miles or keep him in the bullpen. The answer -- you guessed it! -- isn’t that simple.

“We’re going to prepare him to be able to do something in a similar fashion to what he just did,” Atkins said. “It may look differently. He did an incredible job managing a workload, managing the highest level of competition very, very well and with a lot being asked of him switching into different roles. I think what we’ll look to do is have less volatility and less change to what he’s doing.”

Remember, just two Blue Jays pitchers topped 100 innings last season: Cease and Gausman. Adding to that, Cody Ponce isn’t likely to throw 180 innings when he returns after missing all of 2026 following knee surgery. Perhaps the Blue Jays look at Ponce and Miles together and call that one solid rotation spot for 2027, with some bulk innings included.

The Blue Jays also plan to address their bullpen, which has been overlooked in most early offseason conversations. The early read is that they could let that market come to them, though.

Big in Japan?

In the Blue Jays’ early years, they had such deep roots in Latin America, particularly the Dominican Republic, through their strong scouting presence. Decades later, they’d like to establish a similar relationship with Japan. Several high-end Japanese players are planning to make the move overseas during this period, including third baseman Teruaki Sato and right-hander Kaima Taira.

“Over the years with [Yusei] Kikuchi, now [Kazuma Okamoto] having success in that environment, we have benefited,” Atkins said. “I would just say that Toronto is one of the best cities in the world to play baseball in and we’re proving that, we’re demonstrating that year after year.”

There’s a business element to this, too. The Dodgers are baseball’s most extreme example of this, wrangling the eyes, attention and advertising dollars of Japan with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. For the Blue Jays, it will still take time to build their own presence, but adding another Japanese star alongside Okamoto -- who is beloved and respected in Japan -- would go a long way.