Montoyo manager of the year?
Playoff spot should make it a lock, but he’s got a shot either way after difficult season
This weekend, the Blue Jays will wrap up a twoweek run that has seen them play 13 straight games against the Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays, two teams managed by men who are good friends not only of each other, but also Jays skipper Charlie Montoyo.
Former Blue Jay Kevin Cash, who runs the Rays, and former Ray Rocco Baldelli, who manages the Twins, both worked with Montoyo on the Tampa Bay coaching staff until he and Baldelli snapped up their own managing gigs before the 2019 season.
Montoyo’s and Cash’s teams squared off in the post-season last year, while Baldelli was in the playoffs as well. Cash was the only one of the trio to manage his team to a win in a post-season game, with the Rays getting all the way to the World Series — a journey that started by sweeping the Jays. The Twins got swept out of the first round as well, by Houston.
A month later, Cash took home manager of the year in the American League, matching his buddy Baldelli, who won the trophy the year previous. If the last two AL award winners have their way, Montoyo will be joining their club this winter.
“He would certainly have my vote,” said Baldelli, enthusiastically. “If I had more than one, I’d vote more than once.”
“He should be the manager of the year,” agreed Cash. “Given what’s taken place this year with (the Jays) and the amount that they’ve won, the success that they’ve had and then you add the other layers — how much travel they have had. It takes a special personality, a special leader to get 26 guys on board. A room can go sideways pretty quick on you, and I think Charlie’s done an outstanding job of not allowing that to happen.”
The travel was a point that Baldelli also latched onto. The fact that the Jays have succeeded this year despite playing home games in Dunedin, Fla. for two months and Buffalo for another two before finally coming back to Toronto made a big impression.
“The way the second half has turned out (is a huge point in Montoyo’s favour),” explained the Minnesota skip.
“Especially with the team having to play in several different spots, in different facilities and in spring training and Triple-A ballparks. I mean, this is not easy to do in a majorleague season. And they’re pulling it off splendidly.”
That the Jays are in the thick of a playoff race after starting September 41⁄2 games out of a wild-card spot, and went into Friday’s action tied with the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals for MLB’s best record this month at 16-6, also speaks well to Montoyo’s candidacy, especially with what the team has been through.
John Schneider is listed as a “Major League Coach” for the Jays, but he has been at Montoyo’s right hand, along with pitching coach Pete Walker, in the dugout all season long.
“People don’t give the players and (Montoyo) enough credit,” said Schneider, “for dealing with playing in Dunedin and playing in Buffalo (and) just being steady throughout.”
Schneider believes the September run will sway voters, too.
“I think us internally would say job well done for dealing (with) what we’ve dealt with already this year,” continued Schneider.
“But then you look at where we were in the standings to where we are in the standings, and I think that just kind of furthers everyone’s opinion and hope that they say: Yeah, man, that dude did an awesome job.”
That dude, Montoyo, has the support of his superstars as well.
“He’s a great manager for us,” raved MVP hopeful Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
“I think he should be manager of the year.”
“With all that we’ve gone through as a team, we’ve navigated a lot of different things,” added shortstop Bo Bichette. “So I think that (Montoyo) allowing us to be ourselves every day, taking the pressure off of our circumstances outside of the field — where we’re living, being nomads, all that — I think he’s helped us a lot.”
Manager of the year is a weird award to vote for — full disclosure, I have a vote this year — because while we see how a manager pushes buttons ingame, it’s difficult to know what’s going on behind the scenes, especially in a year when there’s no clubhouse access for the media.
Usually, the award is won by the manager of the team that exceeds expectations the most, with voters figuring the skipper must have had a lot to do with that. It’s why Cito Gaston never won it in the 1990s; his Jays teams were just too talented. Bobby Cox was the only Jays manager to take home the prize, in 1985 when the club went 99-62.
If the Jays make the playoffs, Montoyo is likely a shoo-in. If not, Scott Servais of the overachieving Seattle Mariners, Tony La Russa of the first-place Chicago White Sox and Cash, again, are also major contenders.
The trophy would make a nice centrepiece on Montoyo’s mantel, between the International League manager of the year awards he won with Triple-A Durham in 2010 and 2013.