Blue Jays fire Montoyo as manager
The Blue Jays fired manager Charlie Montoyo on Wednesday and promoted bench coach John Schneider to interim manager for the remainder of the season.
Triple-A manager Casey Candaele was named interim bench coach.
The 13th manager in Blue Jays history, and the first from Puerto Rico, Montoyo went 236-236 in parts of four seasons.
The Blue Jays beat the Phillies on Tuesday to snap a four-game losing streak and improve to 46-42 this season, which would put them in a playoffs as a wild-card team if the season ended Wednesday despite being in fourth place in the AL East.
They beat the Phillies 8-2 on Wednesday night in their first game under Schneider.
The Blue Jays were 3-9 in July under Montoyo. They went 1-6 on a recent road trip against the A’s and Mariners.
Montoyo, 57, replaced John Gibbons as Blue Jays manager after the end of the 2018 season.
Montoyo oversaw a tumultuous period in Blue Jays history, with the team playing home games in three cities last season, including two minor league parks, because of border restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Blue Jays also played their 2020 home schedule at their Triple-A stadium in Buffalo, New York.
In 2020, Montoyo led the Blue Jays to a 32-28 record and a wild-card playoff berth in the expanded playoffs that followed the pandemic-shortened season, but they were swept by the eventual AL champion Rays in the opening round.
The next year, the Blue Jays missed tying for the AL wild card by one game.
NBA: Nuggets G Kentavious Caldwell-Pope agreed to a two-year, $30 million extension, ESPN reported. The deal, which starts with the 2023-24 season, includes a player option. Caldwell-Pope, 29, arrived to the Nuggets in a trade with the Wizards two weeks ago.
NFL: The attorney for Dan Snyder told the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform there’s no reason for the owner of the Commanders to testify under subpoena for the congressional investigation into the team’s workplace culture. Snyder’s attorney, Karen Patton Seymour, sent a letter to committee chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney confirming her client would participate virtually in the July 28 session from Israel while on a planned family trip. Patton Seymour, however, declined to accept the conditions of the subpoena. She argued in her letter it’s not valid since the committee previously invited Snyder to participate voluntarily. The committee on Tuesday accepted the Snyder camp’s request to testify remotely, under conditions laid out by the initial subpoena to ensure “full and complete” testimony. Snyder didn’t appear when first invited along with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who testified virtually June 22. His representation cited prior obligations and international travel among the reasons.
Soccer: Chelsea completed the signing of Raheem Sterling from Manchester City, with the winger signing a five-year deal. Sterling, 27, earlier on social media bid farewell to City after seven seasons in Manchester that included four Premier League titles. The England midfielder’s transfer to Chelsea was reportedly worth $56.5 million.