This is not exactly the most pressing question in the baseball blabosphere these days. While we obsess about La Russa and Torre and Mattingly and Ryne Sandberg, while we wonder who the next Mets’ boss will be (“I’m standing right here!” Jerry Manuel says, “I haven’t been fired yet!”) and while Bobby Valentine is shuttled off to every possible job opening, no one seems to care much about the Jays.
Even in a big (and very good) article about the outgoing Jays’ manager -- Cito Gaston -- there is only passing mention of his possible successor, and then no names are named. Maybe because, beyond a brief mention of wanting someone with MLB experience, the GM doesn’t know himself:
“I don’t have a criteria,” Anthopoulos said. “There are certain traits I think anybody would agree that everyone looks for in a successful manager. But I’m really not tied down to any style, whether it’s a first-time manager or an experienced guy, or it’s age or background, I’m really not limiting myself at all. I’m being incredibly open-minded.”
I don’t know who the perfect choice is for Toronto -- the only candidate I’ve seen mentioned recently is Pat Listach -- as they’re sort of a tweener when it comes to the success cycle. They have some older offensive pieces but young pitching. I’ll cop to not following the Jays as much as I follow a lot of other teams, but logic dictates that the future is really in the arms, so you want a guy who can handle a pitching staff.
Any ideas? None of the usual suspects out there really strike me as good fits. I’d say a minor league guy might be best, assuming he’s had some experience with helping a smart organization work with young pitching. Really, though, I’m kind of lost on this one and would like some of you guys to help me out.
