Griffin: Poor Finish Could Cost Anthopoulos His Job

[Back2back2back]

With the Blue Jays season teetering on the brink, Alex Anthopoulos' tenure as Blue Jays GM could be entering a crucial period.

According to Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star, should Toronto continue to slide in the standings, the fifth-year GM could find himself out of work along with his hand-picked manager John Gibbons.

“If they win 81 games or less the answer is no and that would include the manager too,” Griffin said on TSN 1050 when asked what it would take for the Jays to jettison their 37-year-old general manager.

Entering the second year of a five year window in which president Paul Beeston promised three playoff berths, Griffin said the pressure is on Anthopoulos, with Jose Bautista suggesting at the All-Star Game the team could benefit from a move to help a team that has dropped eight of their last 10 games to fall out of a playoff spot.

“For Anthopoulos to make one of two or three moves that are possible -- that are needed -- I think would send a good message in the clubhouse, and if he makes no move, this thing could fall apart,” Griffin said, referencing the need for a right-handed hitting infielder along with a starter to bolster a rotation that, according to Griffin has only two proven starters in R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle.

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=457385

[whysoserious]

So Beeston promised 3 playoff berths in five years but then the bosses froze all salary increases?

[Randle McMurphy]

So Beeston promised 3 playoff berths in five years but then the bosses froze all salary increases?

New boss came in January.

[torontoaces04]

For an accountant, Paul Beeston sure isn't good with numbers.

[Geddy]

Not sure how another GM would do any better if Rogers continues to be cheapskates with the team.

[Moxie]

I think he's a good GM. Obviously not flawless, but his success with contract extensions, the draft, and shrewd little bits of business from time to time lead me to believe that he'd be an excellent GM for a proper rebuild. I feel like if he was given an Astros/Cubs type of mandate he would clean up.

[Mehar]

Not sure how another GM would do any better if Rogers continues to be cheapskates with the team.

Last time i checked the Jays have a top ten payroll of 132 M. That is about 50 M more than the A's, 55 M more than the Rays (who have won 90 games the last 4 seasons) and 25 M than the AL East leader Orioles. Payroll is not everything. This team's farm system and player development has been mediocre at best under AA. Obviously they dumped a lot of good prospects in the Marlins, Happ and Dickey deal, but how long has it been since the Jays had a homegrown guy come up from the ranks to be a reliable everyday position player on the team? The only guy i can think of is Lind. I understand Rogers not wanting to spend more.

They spent a lot last year, only to have a terrible year. If this team tanks again and finishes the playoffs, why would Rogers spend more when AA and Beeston has not delivered the results? The Marlins trade, where Rogers is on the hook for 88 M more for a declining Reyes for the next 4 years, and a lot of good young players traded to Miami, is an example of maybe AA not spending the money wisely. Same way he foolishly gave Happ an 5.2 M extension for this year, etc.

[Back2back2back]

Not sure how another GM would do any better if Rogers continues to be cheapskates with the team.

The deal he made with Miami should really earn the axe on its own.

[tecumseh18]

Have to look at the body of work. in the context of the corporate realities. Deck McGuire was just DFA'd today, which doesn't reflect well on AA. DJ Davis still appears to have a hole in his bat. But my sense is that mistakes like that - drafting the "safe", low-upside pick or the uber-athlete who can't play - are already a thing of the past. I certainly have confidence in AA's drafting abilities going forward, more so than any rookie GM the Jays would bring in to replace him. The two unsigned first rounds may have slowed the development process, but Stroman is already in the bigs and Pentecost isn't exactly chopped liver, so ...

As for the current schlmozzle, I really can't blame AA for much of it. All organizational timelines got screwed up when Bautista and Encarnacion turned into the Manny and Ortiz of their generation. You can't just take such a pairing for granted, especially when you've got 50,000 seats to fill.

[Marmoset]

He's not a horrible GM, but I think his time is nearing an end based on performance over a number of years. I felt similarly about Bryan Colangelo actually; I think both are probably average GMs with strong points and weak points, but after so many years of not really accomplishing anything, it's time to let someone else have a shot.

I don't like it when I see a GM making panic moves, and the constant waiver wire traffic just shouts out that the Jays have no depth and no options and are desperate for anyone remotely resembling and MLB player. Sure, injuries are a factor, but so is building organizational depth, which it's hard to argue the Jays have done anything but a poor job at.

You can't argue about payroll; the Jays payroll is one of the highest right now. What we found is that AA made poor choices in spending his money. For several years we heard a lot of chatter about how the Jays would make trades for big names and high salaries rather than tackling the free agent market. Free agents may cost more in cash, but they cost absolutely nothing in terms of giving up assets (players) to get them. I think a good organization utilizes all avenues, and I don't think the Jays have done that.

On the plus side, there are some promising prospects in the system now, and the team has some very good players. Ultimately though, this is about results and if the Blue Jays come up flat again this year I think changes have to be made.

[UN-Owen]

His mistake was not trading Bautista after the 2011 season and fully committing to a rebuild

[Kurtz]

You can't argue about payroll; the Jays payroll is one of the highest right now. What we found is that AA made poor choices in spending his money. For several years we heard a lot of chatter about how the Jays would make trades for big names and high salaries rather than tackling the free agent market. Free agents may cost more in cash, but they cost absolutely nothing in terms of giving up assets (players) to get them. I think a good organization utilizes all avenues, and I don't think the Jays have done that.

Here's what's frustrating...

The Marlins signed Reyes and Bueherle to heavily back loaded free agent deals. They got 1 cheap year out of both players, and then unloaded them to some suckers for a collection of prospects, one of whom became an All-Star.

Now if those suckers got that windfall of money the year prior, perhaps they could have signed one of those free agents, or maybe they would have been able to bid more for a Darvish.

Then that spend craze results in us shipping out D'Arnaud and Noah in an all-in effort, when the Mets GM later admitted that he would have traded Dickey for D'Arnaud alone.

AA was like a blue-collar worker who wins the lottery. Inevitably, he loses focus and his accrued acumen, and logic and patience are no more, and he ends up busting.

At the end of the day, I still place the majority of blame on Rogers.

[Waylon Mercy]

If the Jays fired Anthopolous at the end of the year I would be ecstatic and maybe have
some faith in the organization going forward again.....

But unfortunately Beeston is stubborn and doesn't have the grapefruits to pull the plug on him
so I don't see the pain and suffering ending anytime soon.

[Michael Bradley]

The issue is, what's going to change with a new GM? They'll probably go cheap again (LaCava?) and it will be the same thing. The new guy will trade the vets for shiny new prospects, create some hope for the future, and if by some miracle one or two of the current prospects turns into a star, the process will be accelerated again before the team is ready for it, and we will be right back in this same spot. It happened with Ricciardi and Alex. There is a pattern here.

Basically the new GM will have to come in and make the playoffs on a shoe string budget because once ownership mandates a payroll increase (to create hype for struggling attendance most likely) then it's over.

[Back2back2back]

Yeah then see their fan base dwindle, revenues drop, TV ratings go down.

You really think Rogers would want that? Didn't they have over 1 million viewers watching a game or series this season? I remember reading this somewhere.

[whysoserious]

The bigger concern for me is the lack of player development and the lack of fundamentals being taught to young guys throughout the minor league system.

We're bringing up guys that still don't get it but have been in the organization for a while? Why is that? Why have we not produced a major league position player through our organization in forever?

I give Rogers credit for adding all that payroll last year even if it failed and the execution looking back wasn't the greatest. I'm not even sure the entire failure falls on AA even if there's pieces to be critical about for what he gave up and who he targetted.

But the lack of development from this organization is huge, IMO.

[Santoki]

^^ is right. It's more than just the general manager. The organization as a whole is extremely flawed, from player development in the minors to our bumbling athletic staff, all the way to our odd executive/management hierarchy and who they are actually interacting with on an ownership level. Does anyone else find it odd that we never know who exactly are the people making these payroll decisions?

[dagger]

^^ is right. It's more than just the general manager. The organization as a whole is extremely flawed, from player development in the minors to our bumbling athletic staff, all the way to our odd executive/management hierarchy and who they are actually interacting with on an ownership level. Does anyone else find it odd that we never know who exactly are the people making these payroll decisions?

I agree. And Beeston can't survive this. He sets the tone, and he has been unconvincing in his ability to get the money needed to compete. Yes, they have come part way, but to stop $10-15m short of being truly competitive is disappointing to say the least.

The development process is a concern. We have good drafts, and yes, the lower levels of the farm system have been re-stocked well, but I am not convinced we have any future superstars in our ranks, or that we have the right strategy in place to development our highest ceiling players.

[Lateral Quicks]

It's kind of amazing he still has a job at this point. And now his recipe to turn things around is to bring in Brad Mills and prime Aaron "no control" Sanchez for a bullpen relief later this year. Barring a dramatic turnaround from this collapse in progress he's a goner at the end of the season for sure.

[Moxie]

I would love a restructuring of the ownership, but whether or not that involves Beeston is irrelevant to me.

I don't really see player development as an issue, and I don't think that "there probably isn't a superstar in our farm system right now" is a fair criticism. Lawrie, Stroman, Sanchez, D'Arnaud, Syndergaard, Norris, Pompey, and Osuna are all examples of relative success in player development in the last few years. Superstars don't come around often, and prospects bust all the time.