Ernie Clement's second base job for 2027 is no longer guaranteed, according to Ross Atkins.

Asked directly by Sportsnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith whether Clement still has the job, Atkins didn't offer a simple yes.

"He's going to have to earn it, but he always has," Atkins said.

That's a diplomatic way of acknowledging just how far Clement fell after an All-Star first half.

His OPS+ sat at 131 before the break, well above league average. In the second half, it collapsed to 54, a staggering 258-point OPS drop that's genuinely impossible to ignore.

The decline only got worse down the stretch, hitting .150 with a .386 OPS in September, right as Toronto was still fighting for a playoff spot.

Why Charles McAdoo has quietly forced his way into the picture

McAdoo has made a real case for himself after his own recall, improving from a .160 average in his first eight games to .292 over his final 28, an OPS jump of nearly 340 points in that stretch.

He was sent down to Buffalo to rebuild his confidence and rediscover his power, and it clearly worked. He finished the minor-league season with 16 home runs and 57 RBIs in fewer than 90 games.

There isn't much left for him to prove at Triple-A, especially given his defensive versatility. Toronto needed outfield coverage, and McAdoo delivered there despite being primarily an infielder.

By the end of September, he'd also played first, second, and third base, giving Toronto real flexibility in how it could use him.

Clement's own defensive decline compounded his offensive collapse, making 2026 a genuinely difficult year across the board at a position that once looked settled.

His postseason heroics last October remain real and remembered, proof he's capable of performing in the biggest moments. But that history doesn't erase this season's second-half freefall.

Atkins is right not to hand him the job outright heading into 2027. With McAdoo pushing hard and a real defensive question mark attached to Clement, second base is shaping up as one of the more genuinely open competitions on next year's roster.