The Toronto Blue Jays are interested in Cleveland Indians president Mark Shapiro, an executive with both the baseball and business background the team seeks for Paul Beeston’s successor.
Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com first reported the interest in Shapiro, and industry sources described him to Sportsnet as a strong candidate, although it’s not clear whether there are others in the mix right now as well.
The Blue Jays had initial conversations with Dave Dombrowski before he joined the Boston Red Sox as president of baseball operations this week, although the sense is the all-star executive sought a reunion with John Henry in Beantown all along.
Shapiro, 48, is a former general manager of the Indians who in 2010 was promoted to the president’s role. Under his watch Progressive Field has undergone extensive renovations, something the Blue Jays are planning for Rogers Centre in the years ahead. In the off-season they commissioned the University of Guelph to study the possibility of installing natural grass in the dome.
Leveraging the recent surge of interest in the team will be another priority.
The club also has a series of pivotal baseball decisions to make in the near future, including whether or not to extend general manager Alex Anthopoulos, whose contract is up Oct. 31.
The assumption is Anthopoulos will be offered some sort of extension before then.
Beyond Anthopoulos, the Blue Jays must decide whether to extend Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion beyond their 2016 options, attempt to re-sign David Price and fill in a rotation with some looming holes in it.
