Guillermo Martinez

Oct. 1: In addition to Martinez, the Blue Jays are reassigning field coordinator Gil Kim and assistant pitching coach Jeff Ware, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. It seems they’ll remain with the club in other capacities but will no longer have direct roles on the major league staff. Assistant pitching coach David Howell is also slated for reassignment, per Davidi.

Kim was hired back in 2016, taking on the role of director of player development. He’s been on the big league staff since 2020. Ware was a minor league pitching coordinator and pitching coach in the Jays’ system for several years before joining the big league staff with a particular focus on the team’s bullpen in 2023. Howell was in his third season on the big league staff, and his focus has been on general pitching strategy.

Toronto will be on the lookout for some new staffers heading into the 2025 season and it’s possible that additional changes will be made.

Sept. 30: The Blue Jays are parting ways with hitting coach Guillermo Martinez, reports Scott Mitchell of TSN (X link). It’s the first change to John Schneider’s staff on the heels of a disappointing season.

Martinez has been Toronto’s hitting coach since the 2018-19 offseason. The Jays have also employed Don Mattingly as bench coach and offensive coordinator for the past couple seasons. However the Jays divided responsibilities between Mattingly and Martinez, they’ll look for a new voice at hitting coach.

The Jays had high expectations this year after winning between 89 and 92 games in each of the previous three seasons. Instead, Toronto finished at the bottom of the AL East with a 74-88 showing. The offense was a big part of that. The Jays finished 23rd in MLB with 671 runs. Their rate stats were closer to average. They hit .241/.313/.389, finishing between 13th and 20th in the slash categories. The Jays were 26th in home runs, though, certainly not providing the kind of power they’d anticipated. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. connected on 30 homers; no one else on the team reached 20.

Guerrero looks like a top 10 hitter in MLB. The Jays got promising work out of rookie infielder Spencer Horwitz. There wasn’t a ton else that went right for the team offensively. Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Justin Turner were traded midseason. Leo Jiménez was the only other hitter (minimum 200 plate appearances) with a better than average wRC+, and his .229/.329/.358 line was marginally above par. Toronto’s biggest focus on the offensive side is getting Bo Bichette back on track. The star shortstop entered the 2024 campaign as a career .299/.340/.487 hitter. He hit .225/.277/.322 this season around a trio of injured list stints.

The Blue Jays announced this afternoon that Jeff Ware has been added to the coaching staff as an assistant to pitching coach Pete Walker with focus on the bullpen. Meanwhile, David Howell is moving from pitching strategist to assistant pitching/strategy coach.

Ware replaces Matt Buschmann, the former bullpen coach who departed the organization two weeks ago. The 52-year-old has coached in the Toronto farm system since 2014. He opened last year as pitching coach with their top affiliate in Buffalo. Midseason, Ware took over the Buffalo dugout as the Bisons’ interim manager when skipper Casey Candaele was called up as Jays’ interim bench coach after Toronto’s managerial change from Charlie Montoyo to John Schneider.

Howell, headed into his second season on an MLB staff, is just 25 years old. A graduate of the University of Minnesota in 2018, he spent a year as a graduate assistant at LSU before joining the Blue Jays in 2020. He spent that season working with minor league pitchers at the alternate training site and the ’21 campaign at the team’s rookie complex before making the jump to the majors.

The rest of the Jays’ staff has already been finalized. Schneider signed a three-year contract as manager and is headed into his first full season as an MLB skipper. He tabbed longtime manager Don Mattingly as his bench coach, while Walker and Guillermo Martinez are back as pitching and hitting coach, respectively. Keegan Matheson of MLB.com lists the entirety of the Jays’ 14-man staff.