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TORONTO — The off-season blueprint this winter isn’t all that different from a year ago.

After spending a couple of years building up organizational depth and focusing on drafting and developing, the Toronto Blue Jays transitioned into a team eyeing impact big-league talent last year in free agency.

They ended up spending around $35 million on the 2020 team to bring the payroll to about $100 million, with Hyun-Jin Ryu’s four-year, $80-million deal accounting for the bulk of that.

The big difference this year is trying to factor in an ongoing pandemic, a significant loss of revenue in 2020, and the off chance that revenue might not even return in 2021 if the virus situation hasn’t changed.

Realistically, from a business perspective, it might be hard to fault teams around baseball for reining in spending and standing pat.

On a year-end call with media Friday afternoon, Atkins outlined the priorities for his club this winter, and while he allowed there is uncertainty across the sport, he didn’t rule out another impact addition.

“I think we are in a position where we could add to this team with talent that is condensed in one player and super-high impact,” Atkins said. “We got to the point last year where we felt like the team was competitive enough to move towards winning, and that was a big part of that decision. We’re going to continue to think about how we can build upon this group. Hopefully, it’s both complementary, as well as making a really high impact (addition). We need to think about that not just for that move last year, after moving from a team that became competitive and pushing to a team that is winning, we need to think about that not just for 2021, but beyond that in 2022 and 2023.”

Free agency is a murky landscape.

There is talent available, but price tags will be uncertain until spending starts in November.

Each winter, as Atkins’ needs become more defined and the minor-league pipeline produces surplus talent at positions already capably filled, an impact move on the trade market becomes more and more of a possibility.

At this point, the needs are clear and Atkins outlined exactly what anyone who watched this Blue Jays team for 62 total games this summer would agree with: Defence and starting pitching.

“Our walks were way too high,” Atkins noted. “For us to have really sustained success, we have to throw the ball over the plate more often and our defence has to be better. It doesn’t mean that our offence can’t be better, and it will.”

The priorities could change based on other moves and allocation of assets, but as of today most of the offensive improvement is expected to come from within.

The Jays went from 23rd in baseball in runs scored in 2019 to seventh this year, and looking up and down the Blue Jays’ lineup, it’s fair to say almost each and every key piece — Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Teoscar Hernandez, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and the young catching duo of Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk, in particular — has not reached his ceiling.

The rotation, however, is another story.

Matt Shoemaker is a free agent, while Chase Anderson’s $9.5 million club option seems a tad pricey for a 33-year-old coming off of a 7.22 ERA.

Trade deadline additions Taijuan Walker and Robbie Ray are also slated to hit free agency next month.

That leaves Ryu, Nate Pearson, Ross Stripling and Tanner Roark, who’s coming off a 6.80 ERA across 11 starts in his first season as a Blue Jay but has another year remaining on the deal at $12 million, as obvious rotation options.

Behind that foursome, there’s a number of young arms that could make an impact, names like Thomas Hatch, Julian Merryweather, Anthony Kay, Trent Thornton, and potentially Simeon Woods Richardson and Joey Murray, who spent this past summer working at the alternate training site.

Depth is important and it will be needed in abundance once MLB gets back to playing 162-game seasons, but as we all saw with Ryu this season, impact players change things in a hurry and are especially important come playoff time.

Over the last year and half, however, team president Mark Shapiro has continually said spending and payroll will increase once their on-field competitive window starts to re-open.

A 32-28 season and a postseason appearance would seem to indicate that is about to happen.

Atkins did nothing to dismiss the notion that resources from ownership will be available, but the fifth-year GM didn’t exactly commit to spending, either.

“The way that we’re approaching it is we’re thinking about how we can continue to build on this team and build on this core,” Atkins said. “The quickest way to recovery is winning. The quickest way to getting our business back to a very good financial spot is winning, and our ownership knows that. Mark has had multiple interacting and they’re ongoing and continuing. We’re aligned on that front.

“The best way for us to recover and to get back to the state to be ready for when fans are coming back into the stadium and to really maximize that is to continue to build a winning team. So investing in players, investing in infrastructure is the best way, in our view, to do that. That’s how we’re approaching it.”

At the same time as Atkins and Shapiro go about formulating plans to add talent, there’s also a dark, pandemic-driven cloud hanging over the organization’s head as they venture into the off-season.

What if they can’t play in Toronto again in 2021?

It’s a long way off, but contingency plans will be put in place as 2020 gives way to 2021 and spring training approaches.

But as we’ve all found out, a pandemic is impossible to predict.

“What we experienced across sport and certainly across baseball was beyond anything we could have predicted,” Atkins said. “The magnitude of what it meant, especially in baseball, when you think about the impact. We shut down two weeks before any games were played and also before any revenue was brought in, whereas other sports had already realized a lot of their revenue with the bulk of their seasons having been played. The impact of that across the industry has been well beyond what we could have expected. As we think about what that means moving forward, we know that we have solid alternatives and we know those alternatives are beyond Buffalo. There are other potential avenues that could be considered if we get to that point and we will have more time on our side, so that’s something we would do with Major League Baseball. Fortunately, we have some information built up in that category.”

If the 60-game season seemed like a sprint, the MLB off-season this winter could slow to a crawl as teams wait for COVID-19 clarity.​