Blue Jays: Charlie Montoyo joins manager sweepstakes

While it seemed as though the Blue Jays were moving towards a decision on who would be their next manager, a new name has entered the race, per an insider.

According to Jon Heyman of Fancred, Charlie Montoyo, Tampa Bay Rays bench coach, interviewed (or will be interviewing) for the Blue Jays manager job Tuesday. This report comes just a day after the rumour that Joe Espada was in Toronto for a presumed in-person interview.

On paper, Montoyo appears to be an experienced, well-rounded baseball mind who contributed admirably to the Rays during his four-year tenure with their major league squad. Before joining the big club, he served as the manager for their Triple-A affiliate for seven seasons and prior to that coached their Rookie and Short Season-A teams. Overall, he’s been in the organization since 1997, when it was first created.

In addition to his experience, Montoyo, a native of Florida, Puerto Rico, is a Spanish speaker, which, in many ways, should be attractive to the Jays in trying to narrow down the list of potential skippers.

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With Montoyo in the mix, the question now becomes: was Espada really a lock? Or is Ross Atkins still doing his due dilligence in exploring every corner of the league to find his manager? Shi Davidi reported last week that the Jays had found five finalists, only four of them named in the column. Could Montoyo have been that last name?

Montoyo hasn’t been mentioned in any other managerial searches, according to MLBDepthCharts’ up-to-date manager interview spreadsheet. However, his name has now been added to the mix, with the Jays being the only team he’s been in contact with.

The managerial situation with the Toronto Blue Jays becomes more and more interesting by the day, with a new piece of information surfacing every 12 hours with almost clockwork consistency.

Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see just how far Montoyo gets in the interview process. Is it just a rumour? Or does he really stand a chance in getting the job? If the latest trends are any indication, we’ll soon find out.