SHAPIRO’S MARKS
A quick look at the behind-the-scenes areas where the Blue Jays’ new president has started making changes
While the comings and goings of players garner most of the off-season attention among Blue Jays fans, president Mark Shapiro’s biggest impact thus far arguably has been off the field in the creation or expansion of several behind-the-scenes departments.
These range from analytics to player development to sport science. The goal, Shapiro says, is to gain “incremental advantages.” He says there are more new hires to come.
High Performance Angus Mugford, a Florida-based sport psychologist at the prestigious IMG Academy prep school, was hired in December as the Jays’ first director of high performance. He will lead a department that will include mental-performance coaches, experts in sports science and strength and conditioning, as well as nutritionists.
“This is the one thing we’ve done that nobody else in baseball has done,” Shapiro said.
Analytics One of Shapiro’s first orders of business was to promote Joe Sheehan from a baseball operations analyst to director of analytics. Shapiro plans to substantially grow the team’s analytics department under Sheehan.
“We need to hire more analysts, we need to get more programmers and data architects, things we don’t have now.”
Player development Earlier this month, the Jays hired Gil Kim, a 34-year-old former international scout, away from the Texas Rangers to be their director of player development, another newly created position. The former utility infielder, who played pro ball in five countries, will oversee the organization’s minorleague operations and “the commitment of player development leaders and staff to include each player in the process of creating and realizing their physical, mental and fundamental goals.”
What’s next? The two biggest projects on the horizon for Shapiro are developing a renovation plan for the Rogers Centre and determining the Jays’ spring training future.
In addition to the 27-year-old stadium’s required maintenance, he says he wants to “clearly, deeply and objectively” understand what fans want in terms of upgrades.
With regard to spring training, Shapiro says he hopes to explore every opportunity to stay in Dunedin beyond 2017 when the team’s lease with the city expires. But if they can’t satisfactorily upgrade or build new facilities, they will look for a new site elsewhere in Florida.