Jays’ move to fire Montoyo runs counter to front office support
A 3-9 begin to July and a quick dip right into a tie for the third and remaining wild card spot within the American League have led to the Blue Jays altering managers in the midst of a season for the fifth time in franchise historical past.
Charlie Montoyo, employed to supervise the Jays’ transition from the Jose Bautista-Josh Donaldson period to the Vladimir Guerrero Jr.-Bo Bichette period, was fired Wednesday afternoon, the day after the Jays snapped a four-game shedding streak with a 4-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies to open their remaining homestand earlier than the all-star break.
Given the timing, it’s cheap to conclude that Montoyo would have been let go upon the return from the 1-6 street journey by means of Oakland and Seattle had he and the teaching workers not gone to attend a memorial service Monday for Julia Budzinski, the 17-year-old daughter of first base coach Mark Budzinski who was killed in a river tubing accident on July 2.
John Schneider, who had been on the workers as main league coach for 3 years earlier than being promoted to bench coach this season, replaces Montoyo for the remainder of this season. Schneider managed Blue Jays associates in Dunedin and New Hampshire to back-to-back championships in 2017 and 2018 earlier than getting the decision to the massive membership.
Montoyo is the third supervisor to be fired this season, becoming a member of the Phillies’ Joe Girardi and Joe Maddon of the Angels, and the frequent thread is that each one three helmed groups that had been anticipated to be championship contenders and have performed effectively beneath expectations.
The main distinction is that when Girardi was fired, the Phils had been 22-29 and 6 video games out of a playoff spot. When Maddon misplaced his job, the Halos had misplaced 12 video games in a row and sat a sport and a half out of the final wild card. The Blue Jays are presently 46-42 and maintain the final of the three wild card spots within the American League, only a half-game forward of hard-charging Seattle but additionally solely a sport and a half behind the Tampa Bay Rays, who maintain the highest wild card.
The transfer to fireside Montoyo runs counter to the entrance workplace’s steadfast assist of their now-former supervisor. It appeared as if Montoyo’s job was to implement the plans of the entrance workplace and keep a constructive ambiance inside the clubhouse excess of to be an X’s and O’s man between the strains.
The 56-year-old held the staff collectively final season in a 12 months by which they didn’t play a real dwelling sport till July thirtieth, incomes reward from a number of gamers who prompt Montoyo must be named American League supervisor of the 12 months.
“He’s an excellent supervisor for us,” stated Guerrero final September. “I believe he must be supervisor of the 12 months.”
Bichette praised the skipper on the time, as effectively, saying “I believe that (Montoyo) permitting us to be ourselves every single day, taking the stress off of our circumstances outdoors of the sphere, the place we’re dwelling, being nomads, all that. I believe he’s helped us quite a bit.”
Clearly issues weren’t the identical this season.
Throughout the four-game sweep in Seattle that closed out final week’s street journey, some Jays’ pitchers had been displeased with a few of Montoyo’s (correct) post-game feedback by which he said that it’s tough to win video games when the staff wasn’t getting sturdy pitching.
These feedback got here throughout a run the place the Jays allowed 4 or extra runs over the primary 5 innings six instances in a span of seven video games.
In Tuesday’s win over the Phillies, Montoyo’s remaining sport on the helm, Guerrero was demonstrative on the sphere, visibly annoyed on the Jays’ choice to problem an out name at first base when he knew he had missed the bag.
After the sport, Montoyo stated that the choice to problem comes from the Jays’ replay room and that the staff was being rushed into a choice by the umpiring crew who did, in truth, deny the Phillies a replay assessment later within the sport as a result of they didn’t name for it inside 20 seconds.
Montoyo joins Jimy Williams (1989), Buck Martinez (2002), Carlos Tosca (2004) and John Gibbons (2008) as Jays’ managers who’ve been let go mid-season. Williams went on to handle the Boston Pink Sox for 4 1/2 seasons and the Houston Astros for two 1/2, Gibbons returned to handle the Jays from 2013-2018. Martinez and Tosca haven’t managed within the main leagues since.
When Montoyo was employed, many noticed him because the supervisor to information the Jays by means of the transition however not essentially to stay round as soon as the staff grew to become a contender. He had nice success growing younger gamers as a supervisor within the Tampa Bay system for 19 seasons earlier than spending 4 years within the majors with the Rays, first as third base coach then as Kevin Money’s bench coach.
He guided the Jays by means of a 95-loss season in 2019, then took them to the expanded playoffs within the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. They fell one sport wanting returning to the post-season final 12 months.
Schneider, who was drafted by the Jays in 2002, spent six years with them as a minor-league catcher and has coached or managed within the group ever since, has received minor-league championships with gamers equivalent to Guerrero, Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Danny Jansen, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Jordan Romano and Santiago Espinal.
He inherits a staff that’s sitting in a playoff spot with 74 video games remaining within the season and if he will help get them again on monitor, he’s bought an opportunity to take a run at a title within the huge leagues with quite a lot of the identical guys.