Blue Jays are still the apple of Shapiro’s eye

TORONTO President Mark Shapiro indicated during a news conference Friday there would be pain coming down the pike for the Toronto Blue Jays’ fans, but that good things are also on the way.

Shapiro also poured cold water on reports he was eyeing a job with the New York Mets.

“This is where I want to be, yeah,” he said.

Regarding the fallout of the recent trade of Josh Donaldson, one of only two Jays to win an MVP award, Shapiro said “the end of relationships are complex, can get strained. It was tough for everybody, but we’re moving forward.”

Addressing the status of superprospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was named the minor-league player of the year Friday by Baseball America, Shapiro defended the Jays’ plan.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Major League Baseball Players Association told Sportsnet that Toronto’s decision not to call up Guerrero this season was bad for everybody involved.

“The decision to not to bring him up is a business decision, not a baseball decision. It’s bad for the Blue Jays, it’s bad for fans, it’s bad for players and it’s bad for the industry,” said the spokesman.

Shapiro, who just celebrated the three-year anniversary of his hiring by the club, took issue with those comments, questioning the spokesman’s knowledge of player development and insisting that the decision to keep Guerrero down is the best long-term, on-field call the club can make.

Shapiro said the Jays are open to Guerrero making next year’s opening-day roster (they can buy more time in terms of holding off on a mega-contract by not calling him up until later in the season, which has led to speculation they would find a way to do just that), but for now they are maximizing the limited window they have to help Guerrero get better.