Blue Jays fire Montoyo, name Schneider in interim
The Toronto Blue Jays fired manager Charlie Montoyo on Wednesday and promoted bench coach John Schneider to interim manager for the remainder of the season.
General manager Ross Atkins made the move even with the Blue Jays at 46-42 this season.
They held the AL’S final wildcard slot when the day began but were in fourth place in the AL East.
Triple-a manager Casey Candaele was named interim bench coach.
“I truly wanted this to work with Charlie and wasn’t able to make that happen,” general manager
Ross Atkins said before the Blue Jays hosted Philadelphia. “I’m extremely disappointed in where we are. I think we’re better than how we’ve played.”
Toronto beat the Phillies 4-3 on Tuesday to snap a four-game losing streak.
“Us as players know things could be better, things have to be better,” Blue Jays outfielder George Springer said. “We understand what we all can do. It hasn’t really shown yet. I think that’s the frustrating part.”
Atkins said the decision to fire Montoyo was made in the past 24 hours.
“It got to the point where it felt as though there were a lot of good individual things happening and we need to be playing better as a team,” Atkins said
The Blue Jays are 3-9 in July. They went 1-6 on a road trip against Oakland, which has the worst record in the majors, and Seattle that ended Sunday with a four-game sweep against the Mariners.
“I think we’re just not playing to our potential,” Atkins said. “I see some small opportunities to help that, and this was one of them.”
Montoyo became the third manager to lose his job this season.