The Blue Jays wrapped up their 2014 season being known
for something. They are now known as the team with the longest playoff drought
in North American Big 4 sports. With a drought standing at 21 years and
counting these are not good times to be a Toronto sports fan.
Obviously in this world on fire this is a very trivial
matter. But the question does beg an answer. Does Alex Anthopolous deserve to
keep his job?
Generally I am not someone who is knee-jerk. I might be
rather impulsive in my real life, but when it comes to sports I am a bit of a
pragmatist. It is difficult to have a long term plan for your franchise if you
are bringing in someone new every year. This is why companies don’t fire the
CEO for having a bad quarter or two.
That CEO must have the confidence of his board of
directors but he also must have the confidence of those that work under them. A workplace is reliant on morale to keep it running at maximum efficiency. While it appears Alex Anthopolous does have the confidence of the
people who pay his cheques I am not convinced he has the confidence of the
player he signs the cheques for.
Obviously I don’t know what is going on internally in the
organisation. I am just someone sitting in their apartment waxing poetic about
a team that I care about. But what is the morale in the Blue Jays club house
and how is that effecting how they go to work every
day?
In the lead up to the 2014 season A.A talked about the
Blue Jays’ need for starting pitching. There was the documented debacle that
was the Ervin Santana attempted signing. A situation where Alex claims that
everything was going smoothly until Santana abruptly decided he wanted to pitch
in the National League. Which is understandable. If I was on a one year
contract where my performance dictated how much I would be paid the coming year
I would certainly choose the path of least resistance. Instead of getting
knocked around the A.L East and taking a pay cut the coming year.
We all saw how displeased Jose Bautista was when no major
moved were made at the trade deadline (unless you count Valencia as a major
move.) It reminded me very slightly of the owner in the Charlie Sheen movie
Major League not bringing in reinforcements to end the season. While I am certain Jose Bautista wasn't the only one upset by the lack of reinforcements he speaks for the team as its leader. So really this
is a question of morale. Can we expect the 2015 Blue Jays to play inspired
baseball for an organisation that didn’t do much to help them? Based on how
this year’s team went into the tank not that long after it is hard to come to
any other conclusion. In the military a commanding officer that doesn’t command
the respect of his privates isn’t very useful.
Jose Bautista is frustrated because the prime of his
career is being wasted. He is arguably the greatest player that has ever worn a
Blue Jays uniform. While he hasn’t worn it for that long he is setting almost every
record concerning “fastest to _____.” Jose Bautista is a player who has never
been to the playoffs and he certainly wants to see his team do everything it
can to get there. I am not sure how much Jose Bautista cares about the long
term future of the Blue Jays when he might be gone or retired. This is where a
bit of the divide between player and management lies.
While we hope that athletes getting paid more for one
game than most of us make in a year would play inspired no matter what. But
consider a job that you had where you had little respect for or confidence in
your employer. It probably impacted the job that you did. While maybe not even consciously. I am talking about small things that cumulatively add up. Morale is a big thing in any work place. Why do you think companies stress its
importance? No matter how much you get paid the respect level for your employer
impacts your performance. Optics is everything.
The 2015 Blue Jays are going to look very different than
the team we saw this year. Two-thirds of the starting outfield may be
different. The bullpen is going to have to be reworked and the Jays should work
to bolster their bench. Gibbons appears to be coming back but if there is a new General Manager I doubt he wants a manager from the previous regime. Whoever is in the post of General Manager certainly has
their work cut out for them.
Alex Anthopolous has done a great job of replenishing the
Blue Jays from when he took over. But if A.A does stay he certainly has some
fences to mend.
