The not so fine art of shared responsibility – Blue Jays style

Jays’ president Mark Shapiro takes his turn with media

On Thursday morning, in the quiet basement of a playoff-free Rogers Centre, with off-season renovations towards a behind home-plate pleasure palace well underway, Blue Jays’ president and CEO Mark Shapiro had his day, had his say. The room was made available thanks to the failure of the Blue Jays to advance beyond the participation-ribbon round of these playoffs. Shapiro was reluctantly taking his turn as third-man-in, explaining his version of the sudden end to a disappointing season.

To place the Shapiro availability in perspective, his presser was the third attempt by the Jays’ baseball triumvirate to make sense to fans of what happened and to figure out and explain the reality of “who knew what and when”, especially when it came to the head-scratching fourth- inning removal of Game 2 starter Jose Berrios. Shapiro had the advantage of gauging and reacting to 10 days of angry fan feedback.  

There had been manager John Schneider’s post-game interview-room appearance after the 2-0 loss to the Twins. Then there was GM Ross Atkins on Thanksgiving Saturday, confirming the return to the dugout of Schneider even as he rolled him under the bus, then backed up over him. Finally, came Shapiro with his 33-minute Thursday session that began with his on-desk mic falling out of the stand and clunking onto the table as if, perhaps, reluctant to be part of what was to unfold.

Actually, the Shapiro session, as it always is with this front office, was the smoothest, the most savvy and, at least, served to fill in needed gaps to what had already become nasty speculation. But fans are still not happy. There is time to correct that.

The Plight of Game 2 starter, Jose Berrios: The 29-year-old was at his very finest in what had been a massive comeback season and after just 47 pitches in a 0-0 game, armed with clearly dominant stuff and alive with swagger in his post-season return to Target Field, where he had established himself over nine years, Berrios was surprisingly replaced by Yusei Kikuchi after just 12 batters. He had known it would happen, even if many of his teammates didn’t, but hoped it would be later in the game, considering the way he was dominating his mound.

Kikuchi, the lefthander, who was not needed to start in the first-round, best-of-three, had not pitched in relief since late in 2022. He inherited a Berrios runner on first and went on to allow two runs in the fourth, that could easily have been more. Those runs ended up as the only two of the game and the Jays were shockingly headed home.

The major question became, who made the decision for the early change at a time when Berrios was dominant. The reality is that Game 3 was as much of a must-win as Game 2 and Kikuchi could have been used in the same role should Chris Bassitt have stumbled the next day. And why were so many Jays’ players so upset after the game and, in what had become a colossal spitshow, why was nobody going to pay the price.

1-Schneider’s group mea culpa: The manager in the immediate aftermath of the Game 2 loss, shared the responsibility with a vague organizational inclusion for the decision to remove Berrios with a runner on first-base in the fourth, nobody out. “You can second-guess me, you can second-guess the organization, you can second-guess anybody. I get that. It’s tough because it didn’t work out.”

Atkins mastery of semantics: It’s likely that the general manager was attempting to show the fanbase that Schneider makes his own decisions, after fan suggestions all season that, in his first full season, he was a puppet in his decision-making. It’s difficult to flat out call Atkins a liar, as many on social media are insisting be done, because the bottom line is that upon closer inspection, nothing that he said could actually be pointed to as a lie.

When Atkins said that he learned about the pitching change at the same time as everyone, it can be argued, yes, he knew the change was coming, which is obvious, but was semantically-protected, by the fact he thought Schneider could have made that decision after 21 Twins batters, when Royce Lewis was done in his third plate appearance. As for who was at the pre-game meeting and that he did not attend, the GM was not lying. But that does not preclude the certainty that the evening before or even earlier that game-day morning, Atkins was informed of the plan. When the GM then pushed the manager out onto main street in front of the inquiring media minds, he never saw the bus coming that ran over Schneider in public perception.

Shapiro’s clarification: The president then had five days in which to observe the damage his GM’s attempt at helping Schneider be seen as autonomous had caused. The more media savvy Shapiro explained to the assembled media on Thursday that the braintrust, indeed, was aware of the strategy, likely as early as the night before, but did not know whether Berrios would come out after his second or third plate appearance. That was Schneider’s call. That would be enough to clarify that nobody was actually lying … but there was a clear element of semantics in all three.   

Shapiro, who along with Atkins will be entering Season 9 at the helm, promised that there will be a review of process that will include making players in the clubhouse more aware of the strategy of an upcoming game whenever it is that impactful.   

Horsehide Triumvirate survives.

At the second in the trio of media sessions, Atkins announced he was bringing back Schneider, who he sees evolving eventually into a superior manager. Then Shapiro announced Atkins job was safe, pointing to the GM’s body of work -- four playoffs in eight years. Of course that was even as Gabby Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. prepared for the NLCS with the D’backs while Daulton Varsho, the controllable, defensive return on that investment, plans his off-season workout program which includes patching holes in a swing that was exploited all year by opponents at the top of the strike zone. The bottom line was the Jays traded offence and what many fans saw as joy in the dugout for defence and pitching … and more iPads.     

So, who in baseball operations needs to pay? Likely, the blame will go Next Level and in the coming weeks we may hear about changes to the coaching staff or non-uniformed analytics advisors. Those possibilities were certainly left open for what has been a remarkably consistent coaching group through tenures of three managers.

Third-base and infield coach Luis Rivera has already announced his retirement. Bench coach Don Mattingly will likely be available to interview for one or more of the open MLB managerial jobs. Pete Walker has been a fixture, but at age 54 and after 11 highly-regarded seasons as pitching coach, who knows. What it likely comes down to on the Blue Jays’ wheel of misfortune, is that when the wheel quits spinning it will stop at the cadre of coaches responsible for hitting. Someone has to take the fall.

In the meantime, as their off-season begins, prematurely, Jays’ pitching for ‘24 remains strong and deep, allowing the front office group to focus on re-finding the kind of offensive firepower, at DH, third-base, one outfield spot and second base, that they have witnessed as being necessary for a deeper run, common to the four teams remaining on the October dance floor – D’backs, Phillies, Astros and Rangers.