Alex Anthopoulos will not return as Blue Jays general manager in 2016

— -- Toronto Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos will not return for the 2016 season, saying in a conference call with reporters he didn't think he and the team were the "right fit" anymore.

"I just didn't feel like this was a right fit for me going forward," Anthopoulos said, according to the Toronto Star.

Blue Jays chairman Edward Rogers said in a statement Thursday that the team was "disappointed" that Anthopoulos turned down an offer of a five-year extension from the club. Anthopoulos' contract was set to expire Saturday.

Explaining his decision to reporters, Anthopoulos said, "You have to be true to yourself."

"I don't know if I've had to make a harder decision in my life, but I did what I felt like I needed to do," he said, according to the Star.

He said he doesn't have another job waiting for him and "can't stress enough how well I was treated, how well I have been treated" by the organization.

Incoming president Mark Shapiro is replacing longtime Blue Jays executive Paul Beeston, the team's first employee, on Nov. 1. It is unclear whether Shapiro, a longtime Cleveland Indians executive, will assume control of the Blue Jays' baseball operations or whether he will hire a new general manager.

Anthopoulos wouldn't discuss specifics of why he's leaving the Blue Jays but said any reports that he was engaged in a struggle for power with Shapiro were not accurate.

Anthopoulos, 38, assembled a Blue Jays team that ended baseball's longest active playoff drought. Before this season's postseason run, which ended with a loss to the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series, Toronto had last appeared in the playoffs in 1993, when the franchise won the second of its back-to-back World Series titles.

The Blue Jays powered their way back to the postseason, winning the AL East at 93-69 with a ferocious attack led by the trio of Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, whose 120 combined home runs were the most by any threesome in Toronto history. Canadian catcher Russell Martin, in the first season of a five-year, $82 million deal, hit a career-high 23 more as the Blue Jays bashed an MLB-best 232 homers and scored 891 runs, 127 more than the second-place Yankees.

Despite the abundant offense, Toronto's season turned on a busy week of trade-deadline deals that saw Anthopoulos add left-hander  David Price, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, outfielder Ben Revere, and relievers Mark Lowe and LaTroy Hawkins. After a 50-51 start, the reinforced Blue Jays closed on a 43-18 run, overtaking the  New York Yankees to grab the division title.

Price, acquired in a trade deadline deal from the Detroit Tigers, and right-hander Marco Estrada are key free agents.

It's unclear whether the Blue Jays will pay to retain Price, who made $19.75 million this season. He won nine of 11 regular-season starts with Toronto, including three against the Yankees, but was winless in three postseason starts. Free agent left-hander Mark Buehrle is another likely loss from the rotation, but the Blue Jays have a $12 million option on knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.

Anthopoulos replaced J.P. Ricciardi as the Blue Jays' general manager in 2009. Toronto had a 489-483 record while Anthopoulos was the GM.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.