With a little more than two weeks remaining before this Blue Jay team disperses to the four winds, everyone in the organization knows that when they reconvene in February, it's not going to be business as usual.
First of all, a new manager will be in place. Nobody, probably not even Alex Anthopoulos, the man who will pull the trigger on that hire, knows who that will be.
With a new sheriff in town, there will be some fresh faces on the coaching staff and, probably, a new atmosphere to match the manager's personality.
"There is always a transition period," says Cito Gaston, the outgoing manager. "The new guy has to get to know his players and the players have to get to know him. It can take some time before everybody is comfortable."
Don't expect, however, that the new broom will sweep clean. Some very good things have happened to the Blue Jays outlook over the last year, a result of the solid young pitching nucleus, and it's unlikely that Anthopoulos will allow a new manager to tear down that structure.
It will complicate his managerial search, no doubt, given that anyone worth his salt will want to have as much autonomy as he can get.
"There's no question a manager should have significant input as far as who's on his staff," says Anthopoulos. "He's the one working with these people day in and day out.
"If you asked all 30 teams, though, there is always some involvement from the front office and that's part of the relationship. It's always a collaborative effort. It's not lost on me the work that everyone on the current staff has done for us, and the progress we've made."
Read into that what you will. The GM has been open and upfront with all the current coaches. Nobody is guaranteed a spot on the new staff.
That includes pitching coach Bruce Walton, even as Anthopoulos praises both Walton's methods and his results.
"He's a great communicator," said Anthopoulos. "Baseball knowledge has to be there but a lot of times you have to be a psychologist, also. A lot of coaches have the knowledge but the bigger question is, 'Who can communicate it?' "
Walton's nickname is "Pappy" for a reason. He has a fatherly way about him and doesn't have a negative corpuscle in his body.
"I am their pitching coach but I'm also something of a father figure who's looking out for their best interests," he says. "I want them to pitch for 10 years. I'm not just looking for a pitcher to make me look good for two or three years and throw him on the scrap heap."
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