It has been a rough week, to say the least, for the Jays and their fans. They have lost six in a row when they probably should have won three of them. When events like these happen – regardless of which team it is – fans feel the need to blame someone for their team’s losses, and oftentimes, they will blame the manager. It is no different here with Jays fans. After these last few losses, certain Jays fans have been calling to have manager Charlie Montoyo fired. I hate to break it to these fans, but Charlie isn’t going anywhere, and nor should he.
When you really look at these last few losses, you can only chalk one of them up to a managerial mistake. That mistake came yesterday afternoon when the Rays scored four runs in the top of ninth inning to win the game 6-4. Montoyo had called upon Tyler Chatwood to pitch the top of the ninth, and unfortunately he really struggled for the first time this season. However, the mistake that Montoyo made was was taking him out to bring in lefty Travis Bergen. While it was clear Chatwood didn’t have his best stuff, he only had to get one more out to secure the win. Tyler felt like he could do it and pleaded his case to stay in, but Montoyo opted to go for the left-on-left matchup with Rays’ Austin Meadows coming to the plate. Chatwood has been great all season, so I think he had earned the right to try to get out of his mess, and that Montoyo should have let him try. Alternatively, if they did want Chatwood out, it may have been better to go to Romano instead, unless he was unavailable for some particular reason.
The other losses, including the blown-save on Thursday against the Red Sox, can’t really be pinned on Montoyo. When they lost that game, everything had pretty much gone to plan. Matz went six innings – despite giving up five runs in the second – then, since the Jays had the lead, they went to their best bullpen arms: Chatwood, Romano, and Dolis. This is the ideal plan and there was nothing wrong going to Dolis in the ninth. He was scheduled to face the eight, nine, and one hitter, so it theoretically should have been an easy inning for him. Unfortunately, he didn’t have it, and they lost, but that is hardly Montoyo’s fault.
The other brutal defeat came the following night when the Jays lost in twelve innings. People can complain that Montoyo shouldn’t have used Beasley in the twelfth, but when it comes to extra-inning games, the team will eventually run out of arms. The Jays had ample opportunities to score and win the game, but ultimately went 1-7 with RISP in extra innings (that one was a two-run home run by Vladdy in the twelfth, but the Jays were down by four at that time). When a team had as many opportunities as they did to win, but don’t, it is really hard to blame the manager because of the seventh reliever he brought out.
For a team to fire a manager mid-season, things have to be going really, really bad. It is also more of a PR move, and something that is done by management to show that they are not happy with how the team is doing. Also, rarely does firing the manager mid-season actually have any significant impact in a team’s results. Firing a manager mid-season usually means that the team is performing well below expectations, and is done as a drastic move to try to shake things up, and have a new direction moving forward.
This is not a situation that the Jays are in. While they do plan to be a competitive team this year, they aren’t going to be one that wins 90 games. So unlike a team like the Yankees, if they end up with around 85 wins, it isn’t necessarily a failure of a season. Montoyo for the most has done a fine job at managing this young core of players, and this year, has done a good job at managing the bullpen. His option for next year has already been picked up by the team, so he definitely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. He will finish the season as manager, and will almost certainly start next season as manager as well. We will see where the team finishes at the end of this season, and how they start next year, and those could play into future decisions. For now, though, you can scream “Fire Montoyo” all you want, but you are just wasting your time.