The rebuilding of the Toronto Blue Jays front office continued on Monday as Mel Didier and Mel Queen have both been named to the position of senior advisor.
Didier, 82 brings to the Jays over 50 years of scouting and for the past seven years, he has been the senior advisor to the Texas Ranger’s president Jon Daniels.
Previous to the that, Didier has worked for the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles and Montreal Expos where he was the director of scouting and player development from 1970-75.
Mel Queen is no stranger to the Blue Jays. He served as pitching coach from 1996-1999, and served as interim manager for Cito Gaston during the 1997 season.
Besides shoring up his front office staff, Anthopolous is in the midst of getting to know his team, players and coaches, by making over 30 phone calls or over 15 hours of conversation, discussing his plan of attack and getting feedback at the same time.
“I thought it was great, I thought the players thought so as well. I had some players tell me, ‘Wow, I’ve never done this before. I wish I could’ve done this years ago.’ That felt really good.”
This was a way for him to clear the air and start with a clean slate after all the late-season commotion surrounding a highly publicized team division and the firing of J.P. Ricciardi.
Obviously, he will not discuss specifics of his findings, but it is definitely a starting point for his next meeting with CEO Paul Beeston, manager Gaston, and team ownership.
“I think a lot of what went on and what happened, I think it’s happened many times before in the past, it just hasn’t come out in the media. Obviously, it’s not like everything was perfect. … Now, its just being able to sit down and go through it all and try to assess a plan of attack.”
Devon is the founder of The GM’s Perspective. Currently, Devon is a Branch Manager at a financial institution in Southern Ontario Canada. He can be reached at devon@thegmsperspective.com or devon@businessofsportsnetwork.com
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