NFL
By: Greg Rector
The Toronto Blue Jays have fired manager Charlie Montoyo. John Schneider moves up from bench coach to be the interim manager for the rest of the season. The move comes with the Jays having been mired in a hitting slump along with issues for the starting pitchers and a bullpen that has struggled from being overused.
Managers are always hired to be fired and today it was Montoyo’s turn. Since coming to the Blue Jays Montoyo amassed a 227-222 record. Can’t say this is a surprising move as Toronto after falling one game short of the wild card spot last season has only for a brief 8-game surge looked like the team that had hopes raised for Canada’s baseball fans has struggled mightily. Sitting at 46-42 and seeing the way the club is trending a change was in order.
A team that when you look at their hitting lineup should never have averaged but two runs a game on their recent west coast trip especially considering the Oakland A’s were one of the teams they visited. The pitching woes added to Montoyo’s demise. Hyun-Jin Ryu’s season-ending injury caused Ross Stripling to be moved into the rotation and he’s been okay, but one of the off-season’s major acquisitions Yusei Kikuchi has been a major disappointment, along with a recent ankle injury for the other big signing for Kevin Gausman (he returns possibly Thursday) the Jays have been forced into a few bullpens start situations and that’s always tough especially if the starters aren’t giving you many innings.
The early injury to Teoscar Hernandez .263 9 Hr’s 35 RBIs turned what was a very disciplined group of hitters into chasers early on and the Jays struggled with runners in scoring position mightily even when he returned. Last Saturday night they went 2 for 20 with RISP. The hitters have been simply pressing and not doing what seemed so natural to them all last season. Vladamir Guerrero Jr .266 19 Hrs 54 RBIs has been decent but far from the frightening hitter he was last season, especially with runners on base. While All-Star catcher Alejandro Kirk .312 10 Hrs 33 RBIs have been consistent he’s doing a lot of his damage along with Lourdes Gurriel Jr .305 5 HRs 36 RBIs when no one else is on base. The lineup has struggled all season to be consistent and really we didn’t see Montoyo (A player’s manager for sure) say much other than trying to get them to relax at the plate.
When you combine the hitting and pitching struggles appearing at the same time, you have an under-performing roster and they are struggling mightily to get out of their funk. Maybe John Schneider uses a different approach to get his team going again. To me though I believe it is going to take GM Ross Atkins to make some tough decisions and use the minor league assets in trades before the deadline. Several Jays are in the arbitration realm and will be due to sign new contracts. Now is the time to decide who will be in Toronto for the long term and who needs to move on. The pitching staff is the biggest concern to me and especially the bullpen arms. The Yankees bullpen is deep with power pitching talent, while in Toronto they have serviceable arms, not guys who can come in and give you innings and you don’t go through two or three guys just to finish an inning. They need another starter along with Manoah and Gausman who can give you at least six innings every five days. Far too often there’s been starters getting yanked after just a couple of innings or maybe four innings, that puts far too much on the bullpen and it has to change in a hurry. Atkins can hope a new manager can get this team going but the reality is they need to make moves now ahead of the deadline. Get the jump on the deadline deals.
If that doesn’t happen I believe there could be a shakeup in the front office. Atkins and team President Mark Shapiro have been around for 7 years, plenty of time to have built a system. The time is now to do whatever is necessary to turn this around. Schneider is now the field boss under their tenure and how long ownership gives Atkins and Shapiro is anyone’s guess.
As always you can find me on Twitter @GregCowboys
