So, no matter where you sit on the Charlie Montoyo spectrum, after the Toronto Blue Jays made their first in-stream change since Cito Gaston replaced John Gibbons in 2008, remember to hold general manager Ross Atkins accountable for letting things get to this point, too. After all, it was Atkins who not only brought Montoyo back for a fourth season after a less-than-the-sum-of-its part campaign in 2021, but also tacked on another guaranteed year in 2023 with club options for 2024 and 2025. To go from the conviction it takes to dole out a deal like that to a firing in such a short span makes it clear some assumptions made were wrong. Certainly, circumstances evolve and forced stasis in the face of mounting evidence change is needed isn’t smart, either. But Montoyo is no different now than he was in the spring or when he was managing the three-home-city odyssey in 2021 or the pandemic summer of 2020. Without a doubt, the fault lines became more pronounced and pressing, or less tolerated, over his 3½ years at the helm and that helped bring the situation to Wednesday’s boiling point. But the issues which led to his firing were evident earlier this year and at times last year, which made the runway provided either a sign of a franchise trying to support a leader or needless risk-taking with another year of the core’s contractual control. “I felt as if a lot of good individual things are happening and we need to be playing better as a team and I feel strongly that we can and we will be,” Atkins said over and over in different forms, sticking remarkably well to his talking points. “I feel like this is one step that can help.” If you’re looking at anything more specific than that, well, Atkins wasn’t offering it up “out of respect for Charlie.” Although offering concrete reasoning rather than letting the speculation mill run wild might have been another way to show him some respect, too. Still, none of that means that this move wasn’t necessary, because it became increasingly clear over the past couple of weeks that the Blue Jays’ wild swings in performance had to be addressed and upgrading talent alone wasn’t the answer. One school of thought is that this group too often falls back on its talent and lapses in necessary focus and attention to detail, which is certainly one way to explain why they continue to underperform their talent. Last year, using the likes of Rafael Dolis, Tyler Chatwood, Joel Payamps, Anthony Castro and Travis Bergen in leverage offered a definitive reason, but this season the baseline is much higher in that regard. And there hasn’t been a corresponding improvement and that led to increasing pressure and frustration, particularly during the recent 1-9 stretch that included the trying road trip through Oakland and Seattle last week. By the end of it, “I think we needed something to send us in the right direction,” said shortstop Bo Bichette. “This is not my area to worry about. We’ll come to the field ready to play as hard as we can. The front office has made their decision on what they thought was necessary. I don’t disagree.” Certainly, the difference in public messaging between Montoyo, he of his inherent optimism, and his players, talking about urgency and pulling together as a group is noteworthy. So too is Atkins making multiple references to playing as a team, including his reply to a question about Montoyo being let down recently by thin pitching. “How I feel about that is good teams win,” said Atkins. “It’s not necessarily good pitching and good bullpens. Look at the history of the game – good teams win championships.” Asked to define that, and how that manifests on the field, he said: “In professional sports environment matters. The level of energy and positivity, all of that matters. Execution matters. Deployment matters. It’s not one thing. And that all comes back to me. And ultimately I’m the most accountable for that not going well. As we proceed, we’ll look to continue to improve on that. And I will continue to look at how I can improve upon that. But ultimately I felt this decision will help us take a step in that direction.” Hence, a promotion to interim manager through the end of the 2022 season for John Schneider, with the highly respected Casey Candaele coming up from triple-A Buffalo to replace him as bench coach. They won’t dramatically alter the way the Blue Jays approach games, although Schneider did successfully hit-and-run a couple of times in support of a brilliant Ross Stripling in an 8-2 debut win over the Philadelphia Phillies. But perhaps the two will connect with players in a different way, leading to a more consistent level of performance. “I think they’ll bring direction, I think they’ll bring accountability. They’ll bring a presence that’s really important for a team,” said Bichette. “I’m super excited for Casey to get here and for Schneids to get the opportunity.” After months of games left on the table, he was far from alone. “Charlie is a great person,” said ace Kevin Gausman, who’ll return from his bruised right ankle to start Thursday in the opener of a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals. “But we’ve just got to focus on today and tomorrow and seeing what it looks like. A different manager, obviously, is going to be bringing different energies, his own person. Interested to see how Schneids takes this opportunity and runs with it.” Teoscar Hernandez, one of a handful of Blue Jays not performing to his recent norms, seemed more conflicted although he hit two-run homers in the fourth and eighth innings in helping push his team to victory. “Obviously it’s really sad. It’s just part of process. It’s part of the game and you have to keep going,” he said. “(Schneider) is a good guy around us. He talks to us a lot. His communication with us is really good, too. So I think he’s going to do a pretty good job with the team and with the boys in the clubhouse.” Ultimately, the manager isn’t in the batter’s box or on the mound. For real change to happen, for the Blue Jays to meet their potential, George Springer says the responsibility rests on the players alone. “We know that things could be better, things have to be better,” he said. “We understand what we all can do. It hasn’t really shown yet. That’s the frustrating part. But at the end of the day, we just have to show up, play hard and whatever happens, happens.” For his part, Schneider is intent on providing the support needed to make that happen. “You always want to be as prepared as you can be going into it,” said Schneider. “And if you can consistently put guys in positions to have success over time, and I know you say 162 but that’s going to be crunched down to another half-a-season right now, the more you can do that, the better off you’re going to be. So I think just being consistent with those decisions and consistent with our prep work and being convicted as a team, that this is going to be advantageous to us to win a ballgame that night, hopefully, we can make those decisions collectively as a whole and put guys in the right spots at the right time.”
