Article content continued

“We’ll see,” Atkins said when asked about a possible logjam in the infield. “Let’s see what our roster looks like when we start the season. That will be a better time to work through that because right now there’s still work to be done on what the final 25-man and 40-man (rosters) look like to start the year. Health will be a factor, the rest of our acquisitions will be a factor. And then we’ll see. But having depth and having those challenges is where we want to be.”

Atkins reiterated that the Jays are looking to add more this off-season and it seems likely the club will acquire a major league outfielder before the start of the 2018 campaign.

“I’m confident that we will add significant pieces,” he said. “There’s a lot of different ways to make our team better.”

Atkins said he understands the angst Jays fans are feeling. Though the addition of Solarte is significant, the Jays haven’t made that huge splash yet, while AL East rival New York Yankees added NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton and the Boston Red Sox are poised to make a big move or two. Both clubs finished ahead of Toronto in the 2017 standings.

Atkins, who was hired by the Blue Jays in Dec. 2015, is urging patience.

“Let’s see how our off-season is when it’s over,” he said. “And over is kind of halfway through spring training. Let’s see where we are like halfway through spring training or at the start of spring training before we really assess our off-season.

“Every off-season, every market, every player, every team is different. Given our situation, we feel as though patience is the best strategy for us to maximize our opportunities. But let’s have that discussion. Being critical of (what we’ve done up to this point), that’s absolutely fine. But I think it’s a better discussion and argument to have when we’re closer to the start of the season.”

sbuffery@postmedia.com