Did the Blue Jays whiff on their managerial choice?

After a 12-26 start to the 2025 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates jumpstarted the managerial rumors cycle by firing Derek Shelton just 38 games into the season.

It’s the first major managerial domino to fall in 2025, and it's now turned up the heat on every manager's hot seat; John Schneider being one of them.

Earlier this week, Locked on MLB host Paul Francis Sullivan recently hinted at a similar move being possible in Toronto.

As a part of Sullivan's new episode, he took questions from listerners, one of whom asked if the Blue Jays should let go of Schneider. And he was emphatic in his response.

“I’ve been saying for years John Schneider should be shown the door, I’m a big believer that they made a big blunder there,” he said.

This national podcaster thinks the Blue Jays whiffed on their managerial choice

Sullivan went on to add some more context to why he doesn't think Schneider is the man for the job.

“They brought in Schneider to be the interim manager, and they did well under him. They went 46-28 and they went to the playoffs, and they lost a humiliating game to the Seattle Mariners where they had one of the great choke jobs, I've ever seen in a potential elimination game,” Sullivan said.  “I remember when I watched that game, I turned to my friend Greg and said, ‘Well looks like they’re going to get a new manager in Toronto.’ That was in 2022 and I thought it was a no-brainer. Schneider did a fine job keeping the seat warm but let's get ourselves a major league manager in here, and it didn't happen.”

Schneider finished sixth in Manager of the Year voting in 2023 voting, and the Blue Jays have a positive winning percentage under him. They have a positive record under his tutelage (226-209) but have gone 91-108 since the start of 2024.

With that in mind, let's take a look at some of the guys who the Blue Jays could have hired if they had actually searched for a manager after the 2022 season.

Toronto could have considered any of the following options:

• Pedro Grifol: White Sox (89-190, fired in August in first season.)
• Bruce Bochy: Rangers (186-175, currently in third season. Led Texas to the 2023 World Series championship. Missed the postseason in 2024.)
• Skip Schumaker – Marlins (146-178, won National League Manager of the Year in 2023, was let go following a 62-100 season in 2024.)
• Matt Quatraro – Royals (164-198, currently in third season. Finished second in AL Manager of the Year voting in 2024. Led the Royals to a Wild Card berth in 2024.)

Eight clubs hired new managers in the next offseason, a list that included Ron Washington going to the Angels, Craig Counsell going to the Cubs, and Bob Melvin with the Giants.

The list of candidates for that cycle included baseball royalty likeBrad Ausmus, Walt Weiss, David Ross, Joe Maddon and Joe Girardi, among others.

Despite having numerous managerial options over the past few years, the Blue Jays front office has publicy stood behind Schneider (for the most part), so it makes sense that they never seriously looked at other options. But if Ross Atkins does make a change at manager, he should also do some self-reflection to realize they they gave Schneider enough tools to play with.

It's a similar situation to what Shelton was working with in Pittsbrugh. He was given a few nice pieces in Oneil Cruz, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Paul Skenes, but the front office pinced every penny possible in what could have been a winnable NL Central.

Meanwhile Schneider has been told to try and win through a run prevention focused game plan, and hasn't ben given many guys who can change the game with one swing of the bat.

So, while the Blue Jays haven't played to expectations in the past two seasons and are still dealing with the repercussions of their postseason failures in 2022 and 2023, it all needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Could Washington, Shildt or Bochy have gotten more out of this team? Possibly, but we’ll never know. All we have to work with is the fact that the Blue Jays have yet to win a postseason games in their two trips with Schenider.

That's not good enough.