Toronto Blue Jays General Manager Alex Anthopoulos has rejected a contract extension from the club and will depart.
Anthopoulos, 38, has been General Manager of the Blue Jays since 2009 when he took over for J.P. Ricciardi.
This move comes on the heals of the Blue Jays hiring former Cleveland Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro as President and CEO. Sportsnet out of Canada speculates that Anthopoulos is leaving because he was either going to be phased out by Shapiro or not be allowed to run the team anymore as he saw fit.
Sportsnet also leads us to believe that the departure wasn’t financially motivated.
Because Anthopoulos is only 38-years old and just guided his team to the playoffs with gutsy and successful trades at the deadline I wouldn’t anticipate him being unemployed for long.
Here is the statement from the Blue Jays organization on the departure of their general manager via Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi:
Statements on departure of Alex Anthopoulos from #BlueJays chairman Ed Rogers and outgoing president Paul Beeston pic.twitter.com/uSsNGCQE8Z
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) October 29, 2015
It is surprising to me that a general manager who just lead his team to the best finish in a generation would be allowed to walk away so unceremoniously. It seems to me that the Blue Jays would have bent over backwards and catered to every reasonable demand that Anthopoulos could have given.
For a franchise who has been mediocre for the last 25-years, it seams like they just ran out of town the best executive they’ve ever had.
