Ross Atkins wouldn't commit to Ernie Clement as the Blue Jays' everyday second baseman for 2027. For a fan favorite, that silence lands hard.

And it set up the obvious follow-up on Friday. Sportsnet's Nick Ashbourne laid out why Toronto might move on at second, and the numbers don't do the infielder many favors.

Start with the contact. Only five qualified hitters posted a lower exit velocity than his 84.4 mph, and just three had a weaker hard-hit rate.

The expected stats are uglier. His .258 xwOBA ranked second-worst among qualified hitters, which tells you the poor results weren't just bad luck.

The glove didn't bail him out either. Statcast pegged his defense, mostly at second base, at -5 OAA, good for the 12th percentile league-wide.

That one stings for a guy who was a Gold Glove finalist in both 2024 and 2025. When the defense slips along with the bat, the case for an everyday job thins out fast.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ketel Marte enter Toronto's second base picture

Atkins has other reasons to shop. Clement will be 31, profiles better at third base, and Kazuma Okamoto already owns that corner.

The rest of the infield is locked into long-term deals. If the front office wants to shake up the position-player core, second base is one of the few doors actually open.

Ashbourne floated Josh Smith and Charles McAdoo as internal options. Neither name moves the needle much for a club that just watched its season go sideways.

The free-agent list is more interesting. The Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr., the Pirates' Brandon Lowe and the Phillies' Luis Arraez all fit the opening.

Then there's the trade route. Ashbourne wondered about Ketel Marte of the Diamondbacks, Zach Neto of the Angels and C.J. Abrams of the Nationals, and any of those would cost real talent.

So is moving on the right call? Yes, because a club coming off a season like 2026 can't hand an everyday job to a bat that weak on goodwill alone.

The goodwill is real, though. Clement's record for hits in a single postseason is the kind of credit a hometown quarterback cashes for decades, the guy who never pays for a beer at the local bar.

He also made the All-Star Game after a strong start to 2026. That makes the way the rest of his year unfolded even harder to square.

And this is the guy who walks to Rogers Centre for home games and chats with fans on the way in. Taking his job is a tough sell in this market.

He wouldn't be gone, either. Clement has two more years of club control, and an outside addition would slide him back into a super-utility role.

That might be the smartest version of this roster. But somebody still has to tell a record-setting October hero he's a bench piece again, and that conversation won't be easy in that clubhouse.