Mark Shapiro has some work to do to calm down a Blue Jays fan base that is somewhat shaken up with Alex Anthopoulos leaving.
It’s been some time since Alex Anthopoulos won the Executive of the Year award. Since then, he let his contract expire and declined a five-year extension with the Toronto Blue Jays. Some may think it’s a bit late to talk about this, but in the blogosphere it’s never too late. When the news first broke, I felt it was too early to really make a proper assessment; anyone watching this story unfold saw many narratives arise in the following days.
Blue Jays Shapiro Has Some Work To Do
The minute Alex Anthopoulos said he would not be back with the Toronto Blue Jays, the fans, and many people in the media, went into a rabid uproar blaming Mark Shapiro. Some extremists went as far as to say that Shapiro was going to tear down this team because he was upset that so many prospects had been traded away. After that first fire, Rogers came out and said they gave AA a five-year deal, which he decline. They also claimed that he, not Shapiro, would have had complete control of the team. Of course we don’t know how true any of this is, but Rogers was trying to put out the tire fire that they helped create. It’s still burning.
The fans are mad, and rightly so. AA finally built a team that made it to the postseason and captured the imagination of Canadian baseball fans. None of the fans will tell you that they are upset that the team lost a bunch of prospects at the trade deadline; most probably couldn’t care less. In the end, making the playoffs was worth it.
Mark Shapiro has barely been on the job and Jays fans already want him fired. He is now a villain in the eyes of many passionate fans. Shapiro has a lot of work to do and must get positive results quickly to distract the fans from this situation. His first offseason will set the tone for his tenure with the club.
General managers come and go; that’s just a fact of the world of sports. No one ever stays with a team forever; even Lou Lamoriello left the New Jersey Devils in the NHL when no one thought that would happen. What Jays fans are forgetting is that people were getting really tired of Alex Anthopolous as the GM in Toronto. The team wasn’t getting the results they wanted. Many of them were also fed up with John Gibbbons as coach of the team, or just hated the hire from day one. We all know if this season didn’t see such positive results that many of the same people who are disappointed with AA leaving would have been calling for him to be let go.
It’s funny how people can have such short term memories with things like this, which is exactly why Shapiro and newly appointed interim GM Tony LaCava will have to make the right moves for the team to keep the fan base happy and excited for next season. The winter meetings are right around the corner, so this could become very interesting very soon.
TORONTO, CANADA – NOVEMBER 2: Mark Shapiro speaks to the media as he is introduced as president of the Toronto Blue Jays during a press conference on November 2, 2015 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
