Blue Jays intend to keep manager John Gibbons for another season

A week after reports were running rampant about the cloudy future of Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, it appears it may have been premature to predict his demise. Thank goodness we have Jon Heyman to come to the rescue and set the story straight.

According to the erstwhile CBS Sports scribe, and sometimes Blue Jays troll,  the Blue Jays are heading into this off-season with a plan in place, a plan that includes John Gibbons. According to Heyman’s sources, the Jays are approaching the winter without any thought of replacing Gibbons, who would be heading into his third season at the helm for Toronto. In fact, that plan likely means that Gibbons would be under contract for at least two seasons.

The contract John Gibbons signed with the Blue Jays prior to returning to his former post included an interesting clause. That clause dictates that his contract automatically renews for another season on January 1st of each year, eliminating any chance that Gibbons will enter a contract year without a deal in place.

Gibbons has enjoyed a love/hate relationship with Blue Jays fans since returning to the team prior to the 2013 season. Some of that has anger has been misplaced due to the team’s performance under his watch, where a record of 153-165 hasn’t reflected well on him. Of course, while the expectations were high for the Blue Jays under his watch, there is only so much control that Gibbons has on the outcome of games, especially considering the injuries the Blue Jays have dealt with over the last two seasons and the lack of moves the front office made to fix those issues.

That all said, both fans and the front office will be looking for the Blue Jays to finish the season with some sort of gusto. A .500 record will represent improvement, but putting together one last winning streak together in order to make one final stand for the postseason will go a lot further, even if their fate is out of their control at this stage of the season.