Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro signs a five-year extension

“The opportunity to lead the Blue Jays organization over the past decade has been incredibly rewarding,” Shapiro said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “Together we have built an organization of people who care deeply about baseball and are extremely proud to be the Canadian team. I am grateful and honored to continue that work.”

Shapiro, 58, served as Blue Jays president and CEO for the past decade. He previously served as general manager and eventually team president in Cleveland. His previous contract ran until the end of the calendar year. Current Jays general manager Ross Atkins was hired outside of Cleveland by Shapiro; he had previously been their vice president of player personnel.

Both Shapiro and Atkins have now signed multiple long-term extensions to continue serving as top decision makers for the Jays. Shapiro is now locked up through the 2030 season. Atkins signed a five-year extension in 2021 and currently runs through the end of the 2026 campaign. Given the Jays’ appearance in Game 7 of the World Series, it stands to reason that Atkins could be in line for an extension sometime in the coming months.

Under Shapiro and Atkins, the Jays have won 89 or more games in four of the past five seasons. They hadn’t had any playoff success — aside from the 2016 season, though that was a largely inherited club from the previous regime — but broke through in a big way in 2025 when they toppled the Yankees and Mariners in the ALDS and ALCS before falling just two outs away from the franchise’s first World Series win since the 1992-93 repeat.

While the Jays have often come second to prominent free agents in recent seasons (e.g. Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani), this year’s World Series push and the team’s $500 million investment in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. may have helped make the Jays more of a free agent destination. Right-hander Dylan Cease just signed a seven-year deal, and Toronto has expressed interest in both Kyle Tucker and in re-signing star infielder Bo Bichette, who hit the open market for the first time in his career this season. Ownership’s decision to commit to another extension with Shapiro is both a vote of confidence in the team’s current core and vision, and a signal that Toronto will continue in win-now mode for the foreseeable future.