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“Like any executive would be thinking, you would like to have every potential opportunity to acquire talent,” Atkins said. “One of them requires financial flexibility, another requires the ability to make trades, which means depth. And then the other one is drafting, which most teams have the similar resources. Having all three of those to acquire talent is critical and I think in the AL East even more so.

“For us to contend against the Red Sox and the Yankees and the Rays, we’re going to have to be excelling in all of those areas in order to do something sustainable.”

In off-season shopping, Atkins says he detected a different level of interest from free agents and their representatives. Almost to a man, they wanted to know about “the kids” — the bright and talented young Jays core — and how the Toronto front office was going to best take advantage of those assets.

If the team takes a noticeable leap forward from that dismal 2019 season, Atkins expects an even more attentive audience.

“The next big piece of the equation will be this team moving from competitive to contending and that’s when you will see a very big shift in those conversations with free agents,” Atkins said. “The competitive cycle and coming off of a tough year is not nearly as exciting for free agents as when we are coming off a winning season.”

As an example, sources say the Jays were in on the most prized of free agents — pitcher Gerrit Cole. The allure of the Yankees and Dodgers — Cole’s prime suitors — was always going to be too much and much of that based on the immediate competitive window offered by both teams.

The more the Jays want some of those elite future free agents, in theory, the more they will want to come to Toronto especially if the reputation around the young core continues to grow.

“Toronto is such an incredible market and an incredible opportunity knowing that we have the financial room to grow and the belief that our team is going to be a very good one for an extended period of time,” Atkins said. “The possibility of that extended window is what is so powerful in our view.”