After hearing a report from Fancred Sports that the Toronto Blue Jays are expected to part ways with manager John Gibbons at the end of this season, I can’t say that I’m surprised.
With the bluebirds heading for a fourth-place finish in the A.L. East for the second year in a row, further roster changes on the way and the emergence of up-and-coming stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Gibby’s time is up.
Back on Aug. 17, general manager Ross Atkins confirmed that Gibbons would finish out the rest of this season, but the plan now is to add a manager who is younger and one who will help the team compete in two or three years.
Gibbons, 56, is currently in his second tour of duty with Toronto and has had a lot of success.
He has led the Jays to a 783-776 record over 11 combined seasons and made two consecutive ALCS appearances in 2015 and 2016.
But during his tenure in Toronto, the Jays were a one-dimensional ball club.
They hit a lot of home runs and had a solid pitching staff, but their inability or unwillingness to play small ball come playoff time hurt them in ALCS losses against Kansas City and Cleveland.
While he won’t go down as the best manager in Jays history, that still belongs to Cito Gaston with an honourable mention to Bobby Cox, Gibby should get a pat on the back on his way out.
It’s easy to throw darts at the manager when things are going bad, but there was certainly a lot of good during Gibby 2.0.
As for who is going to be the next man in the dugout to lead the Blue Jays, I’m expecting a fresh face and more importantly, a new approach to winning baseball games.
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