Indians president Mark Shapiro has “emerged as a strong candidate” to succeed retiring Blue Jays president/CEO Paul Beeston, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Blue Jays have, in fact, already reached out to Shapiro about the position, Rosenthal continues.
The 48-year-old Shapiro served as the Indians’ general manager for 10 seasons before a promotion to club president that saw longtime lieutenant Chris Antonetti promoted to the GM chair. As Rosenthal notes, Shapiro has overseen renovations at Cleveland’s Progressive Field while serving as president, which would have appeal to the Blue Jays, who are planning on some renovations at the Rogers Centre in the years to come.
Shapiro, or any other president, would have a say in the future of Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who, as Rosenthal reports, is signed through Oct. 31. Were Anthopoulos allowed to reach his contract’s expiration date, he’d be able to pursue various other GM openings around the league. While there’s been plenty written about Anthopoulos’ uncertain future over the past year, his team’s success since a number of high-profile acquisitions at this year’s non-waiver trade deadline would, on the surface, appear to have positioned him for a contract extension with Toronto. The Blue Jays are currently two games back from the Yankees in the AL East but are also positioned to make the postseason as a Wild Card team if they do not overtake New York in the standings. The Blue Jays are 21-9 in the second half of the season and 13-4 since Aug. 1. However, a new president could still prefer to bring in their own general manager to help guide the franchise.
Toronto’s search for a successor to Beeston has been ongoing for quite some time. Last offseason, the team reportedly showed interest in Orioles GM Dan Duquette, Twins GM Terry Ryan and White Sox president Kenny Williams to fill the role. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported earlier this week that the Blue Jays made a strong run at Dombrowski, and their interest pushed the Red Sox to give Dombrowski full decision-making authority.
Specific details of Shapiro’s contract aren’t clear, although if he’s under contract beyond the 2015 season, the Indians could be in for some form of compensation. Last winter, when talks with the Blue Jays were said to have gained traction, the two teams were reportedly discussed player compensation that would’ve gone from Toronto to Baltimore due to the fact that Duquette is signed through the 2018 season.
Is this the same Mark Shapiro that traded away a really good Indians roster a few years ago?
No. Because the Indians haven’t had a “really good roster” since Shapiro took over 14 years ago.
The Indians were a very good team in 2007 and they were one game away from the World Series.
If they were so good, why did they begin collapse in 2008?
I’d suggest that contending AL teams in 2007 had multiple injuries to impact players.
Indians fans are overjoyed just hearing about the prospect!
The Sox, Twins, Orioles and others have made it clear their guys can’t leave. I believe the Dolan’s will be delighted if he does. The Indians have been rebuilding for 14 years under Shapiro, and are now sitting comfortably in last place with 50% of their roster made up of journeymen, and a farm system that ranks in the lower 1/3 of MLB.
But Mark can schmooze better then anyone….especially with the media.
How much say does he have in baseball operations anymore? Doesn’t their GM call most of the shots now, I always thought making Shapiro President was their way of kindly getting him out of baseball decisions.
Shapiro told the Indians broadcasters, right after he was elevated to President, that he kept his hand in every aspect of the organization. Antonetti doesn’t function independently.
I’m very excited about this as a Jays fan, especially if he teams up with Anthopoulos. He’s got a track record of getting core pieces like Hafner, Choo, Santana, Kluber, Gomes, and Bauer for spare parts. Archer and Phillips stand out as players that got away, but the good outweighs the bad in that regard. In addition, the organization has a very strong track record of drafting and developing starting pitchers at the big league level so I’d be thrilled to add that expertise to the Jays front office.
Mark Shapiro seems like a good candidate, the Indians fans that are sour on him need to realize that Sizemore and Hafner (who were their two best position players) fell apart simultaneously in 2008 and 2009. The Indians had their two best players fall to injuries and regression at the snap of a finger.
Shapiro did do a good job with the obvious Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore for Bartolo Colon trade. He also did pretty well in retrospect in the CC Sabathia trade that brought back Michael Brantley and the Cliff Lee trade that inevitably brought back Carlos Carrasco. Of course those deals didn’t look good until now with Brantley and Carrasco being good players, but they were panned years back with how poorly Laporta and Jason Knapp developed.
You are leaving out a lot of Shapiro’s record. Good luck to the Jays’ fans if Shapiro goes there.
Record of what? Dealing away Thome because they couldn’t afford him? How about getting Carlos Santana for nothing?
The Indians are one of the smallest markets in all of baseball, maybe you guys would appreciate what he did if you had JP Ricarrdi as your GM? Where his best developed players were Adam Lind and Aaron Hill and his drafted players include Rickey Romero where everyone in his circle was saying draft Tulo but instead he passed on him for a pitcher who took forever to develop and is already out of baseball.
Shapiro did a fine job, with a lot of good outweighing the bad.
His team is in last place. Again.