Blue Jays continue to fire members of their player development staff

With the big league club in last place in the AL East, the farm system ranked bottom third for three consecutive years since before the 2022 preseason, and Blue Jays minor league affiliates ranking 28th out of 30 clubs in the 2024 organizational standings, something had to give.

According to Sportsnet Blue Jays insider Arden Zwelling, the minor league blood letting continues.

Confirmed gone so far include minor league pitching coordinator Cory Popham, Florida Complex League Blue Jays pitching coach Brendan Kelly and hitting coach Fred Landers, Buffalo Bisons position coach Justin Echevarria and New Hampshire Fisher Cats position coach George Carroll.

According to Zwelling, Jamie Lever (Hitting Lab Coach) and Michael Rivera (Coordinator, Latin America Operations) have also “decided not to return to Blue Jays for 2025."

The six Blue Jays minor league affiliates went a combined 299-354 (.458) with a -240 run differential. Among those teams, only the High-A Vancouver Canadians, Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays and Dominican Summer League Blue Jays had winning records.

Those FCL Blue Jays coaches above were fired after a 12-44 (.214) season, with a league worst -117 run differential. The Triple-A Bisons finished last in the International League’s Northeast division at 68-80 (.459), with a -46 run differential; and, the Double-A Fisher Cats were the worst team in the Eastern League at 52-84 (.382), with a league worst -107 run differential.

Clearly, with one of the worst player development groups in baseball, heads needed to roll. So kudos to the front office for recognizing changes needed to be made and acting. However, those changes need to extend to amateur and pro scouting, drafting and more of the positional coaching.

With at least six minor league pitching prospects undergoing Tommy John surgery this year, in addition to starter Alek Manoah, clearly something is amiss in how the Blue Jays are developing pitchers.

The fact that the organization couldn’t produce a single homegrown MLB-ready reliever this year to step up when incumbents Erik Swanson, Tim Mayza and Trevor Richards were ineffective early, and closer Jordan Romano was injured, is damning enough.

Whether these sweeping organizational changes to player development will extend to the front office under team president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins remains to be seen, but they clearly aren’t competent at baseball operations and roster management.

The Blue Jays are the only team not to win the AL East in the nine seasons since Shapiro was first hired. They haven’t won a single playoff game in the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette era; and, only one first round draft pick under Atkins was active with the organisation in September in 18-year-old, 2023 first-rounder Arjun Nimmala.

Which begs the question: why would team owner Ed Rogers spend US$218+ million on payroll without hiring the best front office and player development people to oversee baseball operations and roster construction?

Sure, Shapiro makes Rogers money with casual fans less interested in the product on the field, and more into the much improved fan experience at Rogers Centre. But in now 23 seasons of front office leadership, Shapiro has only ever won one division title in 2007 with Cleveland. He’s never once built a World Series roster; and, in nine seasons in Toronto, the team’s best season was in 2016 with the team he’d inherited from his predecessors. The Blue Jays have finished 3rd or worse in seven of those eight years since. Let’s hope these firings are the start of a full front office revamp in Toronto!