Jays introduce new manager Charlie Montoyo — a 'blend of old school and analytics,'
Aw, he’s lovely.
How can you not like — and respect — a career minor leaguer so clearly over the moon about getting his first shot, 22 years removed from his playing days, at a baseball managing job in the majors?
Actually, Charlie Montoyo kind of reminds me of someone … just a sec … right on the tip of my tongue … John Gibbons. So, John Gibbons 2.0. Which begs the question, right? But we won’t ask it. What’s done is done.
The Toronto Blue Jays took the wrapping off their 13th on-field general Monday afternoon, exposing the 53year-old — not much younger than you-know-who — to a room at the hibernating Rogers Centre crammed with gawking reporters, shooting off a fusillade of questions.
What took you so long to make The Show as the guy calling the shots? Are you a born-again analytics disciple? How will you handle stud rookie Vladimir Guerrero Jr.? Will you be adopting the “opener” gambit, using a reliever to start games, popularized by the Tampa Bay Rays, whence you came? And at which restaurant did you have dinner with GM Ross Atkins whilst interviewing for the gig?
“What was supposed to be an hour dinner took forever because the waiter took forever. So that worked out for me. I cannot wait to see that waiter again, so I can tip him a little more.”
We’re thinking Atkins picked up the cheque.
But it was a nice little anecdote, in- dicating a sense of humour. Lord knows Montoya will need it and a whole lot of abiding patience with a reconstructed team, flush with freshmen, stripped of veteran assets in the makeover which began this past season.
Here’s the thing: Atkins, in his most important hire to date, had made it clear in recent weeks that the club was desperately seeking a more progressive manager, attuned to the empirical stats mantra now driving baseball; a collaborative fellow who’d welcome input from above and insights from below; a teacher to help groom and develop youthful talent.
Yet Montoyo, perhaps sensing a hint of sabermetrics skepticism from this particular cabal of media scruffs, didn’t expressly present himself that way, at least not as a manager who worships at the altar of analytics.
“A lot of times analytics are giving you what you knew already by managing in your gut feeling.’’
Adding: “I think I’m a blend of old school and analytics. I think using both makes you a better manager. I wouldn’t say I’m one way or another. Wherever I can find useful information, that’s where I’m going to go. That’s why it’s going to be so big when we get our coaching staff and talk about it.”
Doesn’t have a coaching staff yet, of course. But he’ll get right on that, perhaps retaining one or some of the aides-de-camp that Gibbons had gathered together. Though it sounded like first on Montoyo’s to-do list is ringing up the players bequeathed to him for introductions and chats.
The Jays could have gone in a different direction, since young managers are all the rage now, a la Alex Cora, year one World Series victor with the Red Sox, Rocco Baldelli in Minnesota and David Bell in Cincinnati.
Atkins might have waited too long in his Hamlet indecisiveness as new-age managers were picked off, though he insists Montoyo was always a preferred candidate, an assessment reinforced by all the glowing reports he got when canvassing opinions.
Obviously Montoyo had built up a trove of goodwill and professional endorsement through 18 years in the minors, within the Tampa organization, and these last three years with the parent club, as third base coach and then bench coach.
“The reaction of all my friends, all the baseball people in the game, it touched me a lot.’’ What touched him most was the widow of iconic manager Don Zimmer phoning with her congratulations. “She said to me, Don Zimmer in heaven would be so proud of you right now. But there’s plenty more of good phone calls and texts. Being that kind of guy, I replied to all of them, because I don’t want people to say I’ve changed already.’’
OK, so he’s grateful beyond words, antsy to get started, eager to prove himself. Doesn’t hurt that the native of Puerto Rico speaks Spanish, or that he was a one-time teammate/pal of hall of famer Guerrero Sr., who will now entrust him with his big boy.
But seriously, nearly two decades at all levels of the minors, most notably eight years with the legendary Durham Bulls, didn’t he ever lose hope?
By way of an answer, Montoyo pointed to Jim Leyland, who managed a decade in the minors before matriculating to a long coaching apprenticeship in the majors and then leading the Marlins to a 1997 World Series championship, eventually returning to Detroit, where he’d spent the first 18 years of his baseball career.
“I remember he was looking straight into the camera. I was in the instructional league. He said, all those guys in the instructional league that are watching me right now, just keep doing your job, you never know if dreams come true. So I want to take this moment right now and tell the same thing to those minor-league managers, guys that are grinding it out right now: keep doing your job, keep teaching those players. You never know.
“If a guy like me got here, it could be you too. Don’t think ahead. Don’t think about moving up. Just think about your job at hand, and you’re going to be a very good minor-league (manager). And who knows, maybe a manager some day like I am now.’’
It takes a certain kind of temperament, however, to step in with a team that might very well lose 90 games next year. Which he rejected outright. “I don’t think that way. We’re going to play to win from the beginning.”
Aw, that’s so cute.