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Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins was on the firing line on Wednesday and managed to survive an afternoon with the Toronto baseball media at an Irish pub without any beers being thrown or salad being spit up.

The only time Atkins was out of his element was when questions started leaping between being on and off the record. And that was even confusing to some of the writers.

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But one thing is clear, Atkins has become much more comfortable in his dealings with the Toronto media since being hired by Jays president Mark Shapiro in December, 2015.

One of the more interesting tidbits of information offered up by Atkins at the annual event was that right-handed pitcher Joe Biagini was essentially told to work on some specific exercises during the off-season — and to get in shape — if he wanted to remain in the Toronto starting rotation.

Biagini, who had great success as a reliever during his first season with the Jays, was thrown into the rotation last year after several starters went down with injuries and the results were mixed. He had 18 starts and went 3-13 with a 5.34 ERA,