Blue Jays: Getting to know new manager John Schneider

With the recent firing of Charlie Montoyo, General Manager Ross Atkins named long-time Blue Jays coach/manager John Schneider the interim manager until the end of the 2022 campaign.

At 41 years old, Schneider has spent almost his entire baseball career and half of his life in the Toronto Blue Jays organization.  He was drafted 13th-round pick in the 2002 MLB Draft from the University of Delaware as a catcher by the Toronto Blue Jays.  He started his professional career in Short-Season A baseball with the Auburn Doubledays where he shared the field with future Blue Jay Russ Adams.

Between 2003 and 2007, Schneider would rise up and down through the organization, climbing as high up as playing Triple-A with the Syracuse SkyChiefs in every season other than 2004.  Throughout his professional career, Schneider battled through multiple concussions and after six seasons in the minors, he retired after the 2007 season.  Schneider played 311 games and finished with 24 home runs and a career OPS of .677, throwing out 35% of base stealers from behind the plate.

In early 2008, the Blue Jays approached Scheider about staying in the organization in a coaching role and the following season he became the manager of their Rookie League team the Gulf Coast  Blue Jays.  Between 2013 and 2018, Schneider climbed one level each year except after 2014 when he remained with the Vancouver Canadians for a second season.  During that first season with Vancouver in 2014, Schneider helped led the team to a 46-30 (.605) record that had them losing in the Championship Series against the Hillsboro Hops.

John Schneider has been a part of the Blue Jays organization since 2002 and after 20 years, he gets the opportunity to be the manager of the big club.

Schneider’s gained some traction when he managed the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats on their way to becoming champions of the Eastern League.  He was known as a key contributor to the development of Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Santiago Espinal, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as they all played significant time with the Fisher Cats that season.

At the conclusion of the 2018 season, he was promoted to the Blue Jays squad, initially working with the club’s catchers before being promoted to the bench coach role under Montoyo.

It is easy to say now, but when the Blue Jays hired Montoyo, I was hoping Schneider was going to be the guy and now I will be able to see it.  Do you think Schneider is the right guy to manage the Blue Jays?