Atkins has repeatedly struck gold with the shorter term signings but I fully agree he needs to start adding more long term core players to this roster if it's to be sustainable and if he is to have a chance to keep his job moving forward. They've generally gone after the right guys in free agency but have mostly been unsuccessful at landing the big fish and been forced to pivot to the shorter term fixes instead.
I had the same observation as Laika earlier brought up that Vlad's quality of contact metrics are really solid this season, so hopefully this is something that eventually corrects itself over time and he starts receiving the type of results expected of the type of contact he's been producing. Perhaps the xWOBA model doesn't work for Vlad and he's the opposite of the guys who regularly outproduce their expected results. I recall seeing on a game broadcast that the opposition had already accumulated 5 OAA against the Jays so it stands to reason that Vlad has been victimized by some great defensive plays early on.