Will Paul Beeston return to Toronto Blue Jays in 2015?

According to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet, Toronto Blue Jays President and CEO Paul Beeston’s future with the club has become increasingly unclear with his contract set to expire following the 2014 season.

This comes on the heels of a report from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun yesterday, which stated Alex Anthopoulos would return as GM of the Blue Jays in 2015 according to multiple sources. Neither Beeston or Anthopoulos have publicly commented about their respective situations with the Jays.

Beeston, 69, is one of the club’s original employees and the chartered accountant has served since 1976. However Davidi writes there have been hints that Beeston’s departure may be coming as his longtime executive assistant Sue Cannell and right-hand man Howard Starkman have both been retired. According to Shi, Beeston has yet to replace his executive assistant.

There were also rumours Beeston might have been headed back to MLB if Tom Werner was named as the new commissioner but that point becomes moot now that Rob Manfred was elected.

How the dominoes will fall if Beeston does retire is unknown. Anthopoulos is heading into the final year of his five-year contract next season while manager John Gibbons has that funky option, which has already extended him for 2015 and if he makes it past December 31, 2014 without being fired he’ll be extended for 2016 as well.

The agreement basically prevented Gibbons from becoming a lame duck manager but that hasn’t stopped uneducated fans to start calling for his job after loss (or even every run allowed) by the Blue Jays. Anthopoulos’ deal isn’t quite so cushy and he could be under scrutiny if a new president were put into place for next season.

Often new leadership looks to leave their mark on an organization and if Beeston does leave his post, as Davidi writes, Anthopoulos would likely have one year to show the new President he’s still the man for the job, much like Beeston did with J.P. Ricciardi when he took over as President in 2008.

At least for now, nothing has changed. How long things will stay that way, I’m not sure, but the writing appears to be on the wall for some eventual front office re-shuffling.

The saga continues…