Last year, the Toronto Blue Jays and then-General Manager Alex Anthopolous made huge splashes before and during the July 31 trade deadline. He brought in Troy Tulowitzki, LaTroy Hawkins, Mark Lowe, Ben Revere, Darwin Barney, and, of course, David Price. Many of those trades set the wheels in motion for an emotional roller coaster ride for the Jays and their fans, as Toronto made it to the ALCS for the first time since 1993.
Fans Need to Trust Blue Jays Management
It was a magical season that finally brought the Blue Jays from mediocrity and disappointment to a wonderful Canadian sports story. It also created for Anthopolous’ a legacy that made him seem perfect. It minted him as the best around, while immediately vilifying new general manager Ross Aktins and team president Mark Shapiro.
Keep a few things in mind: before Anthopolous became the best thing to happen to the Blue Jays, he was a GM who never budged, even when criticized by his own players, like Jose Bautista. He traded away assets for R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, Jose Reyes, and others. That is fine and all, but it didn’t work out right away. The team got better when it acquired players like Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin, but it took a few years before these players ended up in Toronto. This isn’t to take anything away from 2015 and Anthopolous, but people need to remember that he wasn’t perfect.
That is the problem; because of last years magic, Anthopolous could do no wrong and Shapiro became a villain over night. By not giving the beloved Canadian GM a long term deal, Shapiro allowed him to walk and fans were outraged. Shapiro instead brought in Aktins, and Anthopolous moved to Los Angeles to work with the Dodgers.
Aktins and Shapiro will be responsible for the future of players like Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Donaldson. It could go really well, or really badly, but we won’t know for a while what the right moves are for these and other players on the team. Anthopoulos traded away players like Vernon Wells and Roy Halladay. Those weren’t the most magnificent trades, and there are definitely people out there who aren’t happy that Noah Syndergaard was traded away for Dickey, but it happened and life moves on. Fans moved on from those trades; they left them in the past.
What fans need to do now is go into the trade deadline with an open mind and some hope. Aktins and Shapiro will do the right thing team to help this year’s team make another run into the postseason. They will do what’s best for the club. It’s not their fault that Anthopolous made all those moves to save his job last year when the team was faltering a little bit. It’s also not their fault they don’t have a lot of pieces to move to make a big splash.
The fun thing about sports is that anything can happen. It’s time that Blue Jays fans stop distrusting the current management and get over the old management. Let’s face it, in a few years, talking about Atkins, Shapiro, and Anthopolous will be a thing of the past.
Main Photo:
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) *** Local Caption *** Mark Shapiro
