Blue Jays reportedly interviewed Stubby Clapp or did they?

The Toronto Blue Jays reportedly interviewed Canadian Stubby Clapp for their vacant managerial position or did they?

Earlier yesterday afternoon Bob Elliott of the Canadian Baseball Network reported via Twitter that the Blue Jays had in-fact interviewed Stubby Clapp. However three hours later, Elliott retracted his previous tweet clarifying that Clapp stated he has not been interviewed for the job.

Hopefully, Clapp is attempting to keep his cards close to his chest for the integrity of the process. One would have to hope the Blue Jays would do their due diligence and at the very least offer Clapp an in-person interview.

I reached out to Clapp earlier in the week and was greeted with much of the same from the aspiring MLB manager.

"I cannot confirm or deny any contact with the Jays. But I respect their process in which they are using to find the right Manager for the organization."

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Earlier this week the Jays had reportedly narrowed the field down to five candidates including David Bell who was just awarded the Cincinnati Reds skipper position.

Joe Espada, Rocco Baldelli, and Brandon Hyde appear to be still in the running with Espada possibly having a leg up on the competition. Elliott also reported last week that the Jays have also spoken to former player Ed Sprague, however, it was unclear if that was just a preliminary discussion or if Sprague had advanced to the in-person interviews.

I have personally written ad nauseam about how Clapp would be the perfect fit and brings a ton of intangibles that the others do not possess. The 45-year old is currently managing the Surprise Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League after just repeating as the Pacific Coast League Manager of the Year for the second consecutive season at the helm fo the Memphis Redbirds.

There is no questioning Clapp will end up in the majors in 2019 in some capacity, hopefully, it is as the heir incumbent to John Gibbons.