Montoyo’s extension a just reward for three tumultuous years at Blue Jays helm

Good for Charlie Montoyo.

His contract extension, agreed to in recent weeks and announced Friday by the Toronto Blue Jays, is a just reward for his work over three tumultuous years at the helm. After managing the 95-loss bottom touch of 2019, the pandemic season chaos of 2020 and the three-home trek of 2021, all while overseeing the big-league acclimations of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and so many others, a little more job security, at minimum, had been earned.

A little more is precisely what the Blue Jays gave Montoyo, adding one more guaranteed year, through the 2023 season, with team options for 2024 and 2025 beyond that. The terms allow GM Ross Atkins to have both extended stability (Montoyo won’t go into any season as a lame duck) and the ability to pivot with relative ease, if needed (think Randal Grichuk’s extension).

The Blue Jays, like every team, do love their flexibility, but when considering whether they simply gave Montoyo some more rope rather than actually tethering him to their dugout, it’s worth noting the organizational lean toward stability.

Remember that former manager John Gibbons (and his coaching staff) remained in place for three sometimes uncomfortable seasons after president and CEO Mark Shapiro and Atkins took over from Paul Beeston and Alex Anthopoulos before the sides parted ways.

Pitching coach Pete Walker and third-base coach Luis Rivera remained in their roles when Montoyo took over from Gibbons and there’s been no turnover on the staff since, although more roles have been added.

Given all that, then, thinking Montoyo is a bad April away from being on thin ice runs counter to how this Blue Jays front office has operated. And while the finding-easy-answers-to-all-problems-in-the-manager set is quick to pin every loss on the 56-year-old, how many managers have had three seasons of extremes quite like Montoyo?

In 2019, he inherited a team in transition with pitching so threadbare that he once announced his next day’s starter as “an opener and a guy,” and often referred to reliever Sam Gaviglio, the always-available reliever who soaked up 95.2 innings, as the team’s MVP. The Blue Jays ran through 39 pitchers that year, including position players Luke Maile and Richard Urena, while handing at-bats to the Socrates Britos and Alen Hansons of the baseball world.

Out of the ashes of the Gong Show came the pandemic season of 2020, when border restrictions meant he and his players gathered for Summer Camp in Dunedin, Fla., unsure where they’d train, let alone play. They ended up holding camp in Toronto but were forced to shelter at their triple-A home in Buffalo after plans for games at Rogers Centre, and stadium shares in Pittsburgh and Baltimore fell through. Despite that, a 32-28 finish qualified them for the expanded playoffs.

Last year, stranded again by the closed border, the Blue Jays started their season in Dunedin, moved to Buffalo and then eventually returned to Toronto. Amid all that upheaval, they overcame a series of gutting bullpen implosions and other hiccups to eventually rally and miss out on the playoffs on the last day of the season.

While the Blue Jays in-game decision-making became a frequent talking point, it wasn’t his fault that Tyler Chatwood and Rafael Dolis were often the best option in a bullpen where he regularly had to make things up.

And though the players, first and foremost, get the credit for performing so relentlessly under trying circumstances, Montoyo had a hand in keeping things from imploding. This stat illustrates how disruptive circumstance has been: Of the Blue Jays’ 192 home games during his three seasons, 75 of them, or 39 per cent, haven’t actually been at home in Toronto.

“Charlie should be manager of the year,” Rays manager Kevin Cash, who won the award, said in an interview last September. “I mean, what he has gone through over a two-year period, it's pretty remarkable. It's a special group over there but he has helped keep that group together and unified it with all the B.S. that has taken place because of the travel and inconsistencies.

“Look at the uncertainty that all those players, certainly Charlie and the staff, but ultimately all the players faced. You've got three home ballparks, you're getting booed half the time because when we played them in Dunedin, we've got fans there, in Buffalo, you've got New York Yankees fans there – that's not how you draw it up. And the way that team has shown over the last two years the ability to just wipe that off and be very, very good is a testament to the players, but also Charlie.”

Now, Montoyo faces a different challenge.

The adversity of the past three years is replaced by the overriding expectation to win. The roster, once stocked with fliers and filler, is stacked with stars and contributors. The team is at home, with a new scoreboard, LED lights and no capacity restrictions in the stands. The AL East is still a meatgrinder, but there’s an extra post-season berth in play.

Having shown the capability to help the Blue Jays survive through some of the franchise’s worst times, this is the time for Montoyo, extension in hand, to help the team thrive through some of its best opportunities, too.