The Toronto Blue Jays fancy themselves competitors in the AL East. In the past two seasons, they’ve added George Springer, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman, and Matt Chapman to complement tremendous internal talent such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alek Manoah, Bo Bichette, and Santiago Espinal.
But as the All-Star Break approaches, however, they’re 46-42, fourth place in the AL East, and trying to stave off several teams in the Wild Card that, on paper, they have significantly more talent than.
The Jays responded on Wednesday, firing manager Charlie Montoyo after signing him to an extension through 2023 (with club options in 2024 and 2025) back in April. Montoyo had an overall record of 190-194 at the time the extension occurred.
Statement from the Toronto Blue Jays: pic.twitter.com/mSylN7TyDE
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 13, 2022
The news of Montoyo’s firing was first reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Since starting with the Blue Jays in 2019, Montoyo has posted a .500 record (236-236).
He is now the third manager to be fired this season, following Joe Girardi in Philadelphia and Joe Maddon in Los Angeles with the Angels. The Phillies have seen a turnaround with Rob Thomson at the helm, but the Angels have still struggled with Phil Nevin running things.
Here’s what to know about Montoyo’s firing:
Why did the Blue Jays fire Charlie Montoyo?
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During the offseason, the Blue Jays traded for Matt Chapman, plugging what felt like their last hole in the infield. He joined Guerrero, Espinal, and Bichette as a third baseman, and brought more length to their lineup.
However the pitching, an anchor of Montoyo’s tenure with Toronto, has not been good this season outside of Gausman and Manoah. The back end of the rotation has struggled, with Berrios being particularly disappointing with a 5.38 ERA and an ERA+ of 74. An injury to Hyun-Jin Ryu and an IL trip for the struggling Yusei Kikuchi only exacerbated Toronto’s issues.
Heading into Montoyo’s firing, the Blue Jays had lost nine of 11 games, and they were 15.5 games back of the Yankees in the AL East.
Sporting News will have more on this story as it becomes available.
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