JAYS HIRED ‘RIGHT GUY,’ CORA SAYS
Red Sox manager pleased to see Montoyo get Toronto job, writes Rob Longley.
Sure, as a proud Puerto Rican who traces his baseball roots to the Caribbean island, Alex Cora was pleased to see the Toronto Blue Jays name compatriot Charlie Montoyo as the team’s 13th manager on Thursday. But as someone who has been coached by Montoyo and is aware of how he thinks and feels the game, the Boston Red Sox manager feels there is much more depth to the critical hire by Jays general manager Ross Atkins. In its own way, the baseball world is a small one and those who make it to the big leagues from a smaller territory like Puerto Rico are well aware when others from their background do the same. But Cora saw Montoyo up close and personal in the 2009 World Baseball Classic when the former was an infielder and the latter was a coach with the team. And what Cora remembers is a sharp baseball mind. “Where (the Jays are) at as an organization, it fits,” Cora said before Friday’s Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. “It fits because he teaches the game and there’s a lot of young players they’re hoping to get in the next couple years and they’re going to impact the game. He’s the right guy and I’m proud of that.” Cora was that “right guy” just a year ago, hired under similar circumstances when the Red Sox plucked him from the World Series champion Houston Astros, where he was the team’s bench coach. Montoyo held a similar role under manager Kevin Cash with the Tampa Bay Rays, a parallel that no doubt was recognized by Atkins and his hiring committee. Among the other known finalists was another Puerto Rican, Joe Espada, who is the bench coach with the Astros. Such is the conservative nature of the sport that the Red Sox took some heat for hiring someone without the big job experience in the major leagues, a notion seen as nonsense given Boston’s 108-win regular season and its dominant play in these playoffs. The Jays were clear in their want list and it included someone familiar working with a team well versed in analytics, but who also had strong personal skills. Presumably Atkins and his hiring committee saw many of the same qualities in Montoyo that Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski eyeballed in Cora. The similarity in how the Jays landed on Montoyo was not lost on Cora, both in experience and in the recruiting process. “There’s only 30 jobs and there’s 30 owners,” said Cora, who has been extremely complementary of the Astros organization for what he learned there. “And they’re going to hire who they feel is capable. The people here in Boston, they saw me that way and now in Toronto they did it with Charlie.” As Cora also pointed out, “the Jays got a hall of famer” in their replacement for John Gibbons. Montoyo was indeed a 2016 inductee to the International League Hall of Fame for his work with the Durham Bulls, where his 633 wins were the most in franchise history. Montoyo was twice named manager of the year in Durham (2010 and 2013), guiding the team to seven divisional titles, something Cora said doesn’t happen by chance. The Jays’ new manager will get the opportunity to fulfil that developmental role with his new team as well and in particular the introduction to the big leagues of top-rated prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The Jays are keenly aware that Montoyo has a relationship with Guerrero’s Hall of Fame father. The two were together in the Montreal minor leagues where Montoyo fulfilled a mentorship role. Vlad Jr. often refers to Vlad senior as his baseball idol. As for a fellow Puerto Rican landing a job with an AL East rival, Cora was thrilled both for the boost it gives to baseball in his homeland, and by the liberal approach in hiring that is becoming more commonplace in the game. “I don’t put limits, I’m proud of them,” Cora said of his countrymen. “I’m proud of them. It’s awesome and I’m glad that people saw Charlie as capable. “I’ve been saying it for five or six years: This is not about minorities. It’s not about him being Latino or Puerto Rican. Charlie Montoyo is a great baseball man and he’s been coaching and managing for a lot of years. He’s in the Hall of Fame of tripleA.”
It fits because he (Montoyo) teaches the game and there’s a lot of young players they’re hoping to get in the next couple years.