On the second last day of the Toronto Blue Jays disappointing 2009 season, the reign of J.P. Ricciardi mercifully came to an end.
Interim president, Paul Beeston, appointed assistant general manager, Alex Anthopoulos, as the team’s new general manager (GM). There was no “interim” tag assigned to Anthopoulos’ title. Was that appointment the best possible move for the Blue Jays?
Considering the state of the Blue Jays franchise and its fan base, I believe that appointing Anthopoulos as the permanent GM is both not the best choice for the Blue Jays organization nor is it the best situation for him.
Anthopoulos could eventually end up being a diamond in the rough and become one of the best GM’s in the business.
But, Anthopoulos could also end up being too similar to Ricciardi and then not get fired for eight years, in spite of most of the fans loudly and constantly voicing their extreme displeasure with him.
Rebuilding Torched Bridges
The Blue Jays are one of only four teams in major league baseball (MLB) to have not made the playoffs in the wild card era (1994 to present); the Royals, Pirates, and Expos/Nationals are the only other teams not to reach the playoffs in this era.
If sharing a category with the perennial bottom-dwellers in MLB wasn’t bad enough, Blue Jays fans had to endure almost eight years of likely the most hated person in the history of Toronto sports; namely, J.P. Ricciardi.
This past season was most likely the most bitter that the Blue Jays’ fans have been in the history of the franchise.
The Blue Jays taking a big risk on another rookie GM is not the best way to send a message to disillusioned fans that things are going to drastically change for the better soon.
One of the unfortunate, but not surprising, results of Ricciardi constantly lying for so long is that the Blue Jays are now left with serious credibility issues.
Many fans have understandably stopped believing anything that comes from the Blue Jays’ upper management.
Now, more than ever, the Blue Jays need to prove to their fans that they’re serious about contending as soon as possible with actions, not just words. They need to send a clear message that they’ve heard and cared about all the cries from the fans and that they’re doing everything possible to right the past 16 years of wrongs.
The Blue Jays should hire a GM with a proven good track record. That would send the loudest and clearest message possible to the fans that the Blue Jays are serious about contending as soon as possible.
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