It's a World-Series-or-bust mindset for Shapiro's Jays

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DUNEDIN, Fla. — Mark Shapiro has every reason to be smiling these days.

Sitting in a boardroom named after Paul Beeston inside his prized possession, a new $110-million player development complex, on Friday morning, the Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO talked rising payrolls, a newly-planned large-scale renovation of the interior of Rogers Centre, and, of course, winning.

As the challenges of the pandemic finally start to ease, the payroll, a rebuilt roster chock full of star talent, the minor-league system and the overall mindset of the entire organization all seem to be in great shape with the 2022 season on the horizon.

Starting in April, the revenue will start to return, as well, leaving very few major items left to check off the to-do list.

Except one.

And it’s absolutely going to be the hardest one to achieve.

“I hope we have one or two world championship trophies in the case,” Shapiro said of where he hopes the Blue Jays are as an organization in two years. “That’s what I hope we look like.”

Climbing that hill will be difficult, but the Jays are better equipped to do it than all but a handful of teams in baseball.

The plan Shapiro pitched to Rogers ownership six years ago has become mostly reality, maybe even a little quicker than the soon-to-be 55-year-old executive thought.

“There was a plan laid out five or six years ago, and they never unfold exactly as you think, but things have unfolded as we proposed,” Shapiro said.

Coming off a 91-win season with a pair of MVP candidates and the AL Cy Young winner that somehow, someway didn’t end in a trip to the postseason, Shapiro feels the amended group put together by GM Ross Atkins and his front office has improved and is one that’s prepared to