TORONTO – In a number of ways, the Toronto Blue Jays are as stable as they’ve been in a very long time. Franchise player Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is locked up through the next decade. The leadership group of president and CEO Mark Shapiro, GM Ross Atkins and manager John Schneider are in place for years to come, with crucial organizational alignment above and below them.

The club enters the season projecting a top-five Competitive Balance Tax payroll, spending at a level that would have been fantasy a decade ago. Making that sustainable is Rogers Centre, with its third renovation unveiled Wednesday, a venue now leveraged by both players and fans, capable of generating revenue at a level competitive with their prime rivals and viable for the foreseeable future.

Put all together, then, there’s a case to be made that the franchise is on its best footing since the 1992-93 World Series years, which is rather remarkable given “the inflection point,” as Shapiro put it, the organization was facing just one year ago. 

Shapiro can now say, “there's not a moment that we don't hold ourselves to high expectations and very few moments that we reflect on being satisfied – we're chasing excellence,” and the evidence is clear both in process and results.

Yet at the same time that the Blue Jays flex within the current baseball structure, there is a threat of widescale upheaval in the industry once the current collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, with owners expected to lock out players immediately after.

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