A Blast From The Past in Toronto
Another day, another manager fired. This time it was John Gibbons in Toronto. That comes a day after Seattle made a change, and just a few days after Willie Randolph started this current epidemic of managerial upgrades.
Just like the previous two firings, this one was unquestionably needed. The Blue Jays have one of the best starting rotations in the league, and they have no shortage of batting talent, but they are underachieving at the plate as much as it is possible for a team to do (except for Seattle). It’s frankly a bit of a surprise that Gibbons, a guy who thinks that challenging a player to a fist fight isn’t necessarily a bad idea, made it this far.
More remarkable than this inevitable firing is who Toronto tabbed to replace Gibbons - Cito Gaston. If you recall, Gaston is the guy who led the Blue Jays to back-to-back World Series victories. A few observations from that front:
1. This is a clear sign that J.P. Ricciardi is all but done in Toronto. There is no way that Ricciardi made this hire. Gaston is an ownership man, and they pull the strings on this one. Ricciardi has prove yet again that he is a goof with this Adam Dunn kerfuffle this week, and his days are very numbered. I figure he will play out the season and then ‘leave to pursue other opportunities’. Good riddance - the guy is lousy. I live in Canada, and the sports radio station in my home town is owned by the same group that owns the Jays, so this story got lots of coverage today. In all of that coverage it is Paul Godfrey, the President and CEO of the team, that is quoted or makes a comment. Ricciardi is silent.
2. Gaston is an odd case. He took over an underachieving team full of holes midway through th 1989 season, and he turned them into dominant champs. He ultimately left the team rather unceremoniously in 1997, and he hasn’t managed since. He was a finalist with Detroit and the White Sox, but he hasn’t been offered anything better than a hitting instructor job. On paper he clearly deserves another shot, so there must be a less-than-enjoyable part of his personality from the management perspective.
3. This move will by the team time from the fans. Gaston is wildly popular in Toronto for obvious reasons, and his return will be seen as the greatest move ever. It probably won’t actually turn out to be a great move, but it will buy the Jays some time to turn things around from a roster perspective.
4. Gaston has a background as a hitting coach, and this team can’t hit at all, so he seems like a good fit. If he sticks with what he knows then he should be fine. The risk, though, is that he will rest on his past laurels. None of the current players will care about that and it will go badly.
5. It will be interesting to see if Gaston’s hiring is basically just a P.R. move or if he will be given real input into this team. There are several players on the roster that are not his type of guys, so if changes start to be made then we’ll quickly know that Gaston is for real.
6. This does nothing to change the Jays’ fundamental problem - they likely will never return to former glory until they can find a way to get out of the AL East. The last decade would have looked very different for them if they were in the AL Central.
7. Who’s next? I’m not going to do the research, but I would guess that this is the most mid-season firings we have seen in one week in a long time. If ever. There are a few more guys who probably don’t need to stay where they are. Clint Hurdle has his team playing better in Colorado, but it’s still pretty ugly, and it has the real potential to get worse. Cleveland and Detroit are both spending too much money to be patient forever. Manny Acta is terrible in Washington, but to be fair there isn’t a manager alive that could do anything with that mess. Cecil Cooper is only in his first full year as manager in Houston after taking over as an interim last year, but he isn’t doing much with the talent he has and gives us little reason to believe that he has a long, bright future. After failing to make the playoffs last year and basically failing to win a game this year, Bud Black may be in some trouble in San Diego. Heck, if this firing pace keeps up baseball could soon be like the NBA was a couple of years ago.
8. There was an almost total change in the coaching staff at the same time. Most notable was that Dwayne Murphy replaces Ernie Whitt as first base coach. Murphy was the guy who hit behind Rickey Henderson in Oakland when Rickey was at his base stealing best. He was a very good and underappreciated player, and he is still a legend in Oakland. Sadly, Toronto doesn’t travel to Oakland for the rest of the year, so we don’t get to enjoy the interesting, though totally meaningless, story of how Murphy is received in his homecoming. In another blast from the past, Gene Tenace is the hitting coach. Tenace filled that same role when Gaston was last the manager, and he was a successful interim manager for a short spell when Gaston had to take time off with back problems.
9. I hope the Jays realize that bringing back the 1992 staff won’t bring back 1992 results.
