Montoyo brings Jays a shift in philosophy
Expect new manager to apply analytics, be a Vlad Jr. mentor
TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays have decided on former Tampa Bay Rays bench coach Charlie Montoyo as the team’s 13th manager replacing John Gibbons, sources told the Toronto Star on Thursday afternoon, an appointment that was confirmed later in the day.
Montoyo, 53, is taking his first major-league managerial job.
The contract is for three years plus a club option in 2022. He is an old-school baseball mind with an appreciation for analytics. After managing 16 seasons in the Rays’ minor-league system, the former utility infielder joined Tampa Bay’s major-league staff as thirdbase coach in ’15, then as bench coach in ’18, responsible for the Rays’ extensive defensive shifts.
Montoyo played a season with the Triple-A Ottawa Lynx in 1993 then was promoted for the month of September with the Expos, his only experience as a player in the majors. He attempted a second tour in Montreal in ’96, but realized that his playing time had passed him by.
Montoyo ostensibly began his coaching career when he was asked by the Expos at spring training of ’96 to go down to the lower levels of the minor-league system to work with some of the top young prospects.
It was there that he met Vladimir Guerrero embarking on his meteoric rise to the majors.
Montoyo sees him as the best minor-league prospect he has seen. Now he will be responsible for Vlad Guerrero Jr., who is ranked as the top prospect in baseball. Full circle.
The history of Major League Baseball is that, when you replace a manager, it is usually someone with the opposite personality traits and skills. While Gibbons was a reluctant convert to the modern wave of analytics, Montoyo is a full-on born-again baseball manager, believing in the shift and in the opportunities to win that are presented by the concept of a pitching opener, rather than a rotation of 100-pitch starters, as pioneered by manager Kevin Cash and the Rays.
Montoyo said he understands the uniqueness of the Jays in Major League Baseball, that they are representing an entire country and not just one city. He has experience as a coach for Team Puerto Rico in the World
Baseball Classic.
Baseball has always been a copycat game and no longer are front offices reluctant to hire first-year managers, following the recent success of the Boston Red Sox with Alex Cora, the New York Yankees with Aaron Boone, the Los Angeles Dodgers with Dave Roberts and the Rays with Cash. Montoyo becomes the third minority manager hired by the Jays in the 42 seasons of the franchise, following Cito Gaston (black) and Carlos Tosca (CubanAmerican). Montoyo’s ability to speak Spanish is a bonus, but was not considered a necessity for the rebuilding Jays.
It seems clear the Blue Jays had certain requirements as part of the interview process for a manager to replace the departed Gibbons. They were looking for a first-time MLB manager with a knowledge of and respect for analytics who had also spent time in a major-league dugout as a coach. The list was down to three. Following a preliminary round of phone interviews conducted by Jays GM Ross Atkins, it came down to five in-person interviews over the past 14 days. That select group included Montoyo, San Francisco Giants farm director David Bell, Rays coach Rocco Baldelli, Houston Astros bench coach Joe Espada and Chicago Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde. With Bell deciding to head to the Reds and with the Twins deciding on Baldelli, that effectively left the Jays with three leading candidates.
There had been lively speculation for two months about other candidates, a list that included the, two-time Pacific
Coast League manager of the year, Canadian baseball icon Stubby Clapp, former Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge, currently Jays’ minor-league field co-ordinator, current Jays bench coach Demarlo Hale and the organization’s Double-A New Hampshire manager, John Schneider, who has been with the organization since 2006, working with many of the young players about to make the breakthrough to the majors with a rebuilding squad in ’19.
Espada, 43, was considered a Jays front-runner because of the similar path he had taken to
Cora, a young Puerto Rican coach graduating from Astros’ bench coach to a major-league managerial position for his first posting. Espada had experience with the Yankees as a third-base coach and spent a season out of uniform in New York’s front office working with GM Brian Cashman. Hyde, 45, was a strong candidate for the position, having spent five years as a Miami Marlins minor-league player, five years as a minor-league manager, then rising to the majors as a coach with the Marlins and the Cubs, spending the past four years with Joe Maddon.
The Jays coaching staff under Gibbons all are signed through the 2019 season, but it is expected that at least 2-3 of them will choose to accept jobs elsewhere. Gibbons’ staff included Hale, pitching coach Pete Walker, hitting coach Brook Jacoby, thirdbase coach Luis Rivera, first-base coach Tim Leiper, bullpen coach Dane Johnson and quality control coach Mike Mordecai.