This post is part of a series covering the 2024 Contemporary Baseball Era Committee Managers/Executives/Umpires ballot, covering candidates in those categories who made their greatest impact from 1980 to the present. For an introduction to the ballot, see here. The eight candidates will be voted upon at the Winter Meetings in Nashville on December 3, and anyone receiving at least 75% of the vote from the 16 committee members will be inducted in Cooperstown on July 21, 2024 along with any candidates elected by the BBWAA.

Cito Gaston

After Jackie Robinson integrated the National League in 1947, it took 28 years — not to mention pointed public comments from Robinson himself just before his death — for a team to hire a Black manager, namely Frank Robinson, who piloted Cleveland starting in 1975. Such was the slow pace of change that it took another 14 years for two teams with Black managers to square off in the same game, when Robinson’s Orioles and Cito Gaston’s Blue Jays met on June 26, 1989. Three years later, Gaston carved out an even bigger spot in baseball history when he became the first Black manager to lead a team to a World Series victory, a feat he and the Blue Jays repeated in 1993.

During his time in the dugout, Gaston earned a reputation for putting trust in his players (sometimes to a fault) and being approachable, creating a calm and stable working environment. Even so, he spent only eight full seasons and parts of four others as a major league manager and was never hired by a team besides the Blue Jays. After falling short in multiple interviews, he was outspoken regarding the process, expressing a belief that he was sometimes just the token minority included in a team’s search for a new manager. That said, he also expressed a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to the job and often seemed happier as a hitting coach, a role he held for nine seasons and change in Toronto. Gaston is the only one of the four managers on this Era Committee ballot to win multiple World Series. The question is whether that should push him to the front of the line in this context despite his career length. Read the rest of this entry »

You might have noticed a surfeit of bunting in this postseason, or at least it seemed that way because Geraldo Perdomo was in the World Series. I, the man who launched an impromptu Bunt Week two months ago, could not let the opportunity pass to sit in judgment of these bunts.

We often decry the sacrifice bunt as a needless waste of outs, but a bunt for a hit can be one of the most audacious, skilled plays in the sport, as beautiful in its own way as a light-tower home run. In fact, every bunt is distinctive and wonderful, and so each must be examined — all 26 of them — for procedural and results-based value, tactical and strategic context, as well as aesthetic value. These are just the 26 bunts that resulted in action, according to Baseball Savant, so be warned: failed bunt attempts are not featured. If you’re looking for that failed Trea Turner push bunt in Game 7 of the NLCS, you will not find it here. (Though for the record, I didn’t hate it.)

Let us judge the bunts. Read the rest of this entry »

Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Operations- Entry Level Opportunities

The Toronto Blue Jays are seeking highly motivated and creative entry level employees to assist with day-to-day tasks within various areas of their Baseball Operations department, including but not limited to Scouting, Player Development, High Performance, and Research and Development/Analytics. The start and end dates are flexible depending on candidate availability and both full-season and partial-season candidates will be considered. These positions will be based in Toronto, ON; Dunedin, FL; or one of our affiliate locations throughout Canada, the United States, and Dominican Republic. All positions are paid.

There are several roles with different primary focuses, with more detail on each broad type of position provided below. To the extent that you’re interested in a specific focus you may reflect that in your application, but you only need to submit one application to the program and all applications will be considered for possible fits. These job categories are intentionally broad, and a successful candidate may be considered for a role that involves a blend of these responsibilities, or in an entirely different area that is more suited to their unique experiences and skills. Many baseball careers are non-linear and an entry level role in any of these areas could ultimately lead to a career in a different area.

Across all roles, the Blue Jays are seeking:

• Demonstrated passion for baseball and excellent reasoning, problem-solving, creative thinking, and communication skills. 
• Strong interpersonal skills to communicate effectively with a wide range of individuals. 
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and self-direct work. 
• Excellent attention to detail and time management skills. 
• The ability to work evenings, weekends, and holidays as required by the baseball calendar. 

The Blue Jays see diversity and employment equity as foundational to creating a successful culture.
Applicants who may not traditionally feel empowered to apply for a job in this field are strongly
encouraged to apply.

You may receive an email asking you to complete a more detailed follow-up application regarding your interests and employment goals. Please ensure that baseballresumes@bluejays.com is allowed in your email system.

Player Development Technology
In this role, candidates passionate about working directly with coaches and players will be embedded with teams at the Blue Jays’ development complexes (Dunedin, FL and Boca Chica, D.R.) and affiliate teams (Dunedin, FL; Vancouver, BC; Manchester, NH; Buffalo, NY). On a daily basis, you will be with your team as the point person for video, technology, and data resources. This may include helping to deploy and operate technology both in practice and game settings, organizing/cataloguing/reviewing video and data, helping to define and track player goals, and supporting longer-term R&D and Player Development projects. You will also assist with the logistical needs of the team (including Minor League Operations, Nutrition, and High Performance departments), and potentially on-field activities (BP, fungos, catching pens). Fluency with Microsoft Office is required; experience with a range of baseball-related data capture systems (BATS, Portable Trackman, Rapsodo, Diamond Kinetics, etc.) would be helpful, as would experience with video editing and review software. Spanish proficiency is also helpful, and may be required in some cases. If you’re interested in learning about the rhythms of a pro baseball season and passionate about a career in using data and technology to help players get better, this could be a good fit for you.

Operations (Scouting, Baseball Operations, Player Development)
Candidates will use their excellent organizational skills and high attention to detail to support the logistical and administrative functioning of the scouting, player development, or baseball operations departments. This could include data entry and cleaning, assisting with the coordination and execution of player evaluation projects, maintaining and organizing video and data resources, and helping to stay on top of departmental administrative functions (expense reports, compiling statistics and rosters, meeting logistics, etc.). If supporting our Player Development department, you may be asked to help integrate technology into on-field work, administer player plans, translate documents to/from English and Spanish, and help with scheduling for players and staff. Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, is important for this role; familiarity with baseball rules and regulations may be beneficial, and Spanish proficiency may also be helpful (or required in some cases).

Advance Scouting
In this role, candidates will use their strong knowledge of the game of baseball to support our Major League team in game-by-game and series-by-series preparation. This could include a wide range of activities, such as collecting and organizing statistics for reports, conducting ad-hoc research and analysis on players or the game of baseball generally, watching video to provide written evaluations and insights, and supporting on-field data and video collection. Strong time management and organizational skills are important, and skills with things like R, Shiny, and similar tools would be helpful plusses.

Research & Development
Candidates will use their analytical and programming skills to help identify and research baseball questions. Proficiency in self-directed research work using tools such as R, Python, and SQL in at least one, and ideally multiple, of the following areas is important: data acquisition, organization, and cleaning; modelling/machine learning; data visualization and/or automated reporting; and statistical summary techniques. Experience with advanced modelling techniques or other specialized skills (Computer Vision, Neural Networks, Bayesian Modeling, Anomaly Detection, Time Series etc.) would be beneficial, but not necessary. You may present work to a variety of audiences (fellow researchers, front office members, coaches, or players), and may use the results of research to contribute to player evaluations at key junctures. Additional duties may include providing logistical support to major events on the baseball calendar (Draft, Trade Deadline, etc.) and other general departmental support.

Baseball Systems Development
Candidates for this role will help to create, update, and support web applications and databases that are used throughout baseball operations; a moderate to high level of experience in computer science, web and/or database development, software engineering, or a related field is quite important. A portfolio of work showing your past experiences in these areas is also helpful. Duties may include working with end users to gather requirements, engineering systems to acquire and store new datasets, or doing front-end web design work on baseball information systems. You will have the opportunity to experience and provide logistical support to key points on the baseball calendar.

Biomechanics/Sports Science
Candidates for this role have a strong academic background in Biomechanics, Physics, Sports Science, or a related field and are passionate about applying their expertise to baseball. This could be in a research/data analysis focused capacity (ie. using data to create research/analysis that is used to drive decisions and help players improve), a role that is more hands-on with players and other development and performance staff (ie. working with players and staff in a real-time data capture setting to provide live movement feedback), or somewhere in the middle. In all cases, you would work closely with player development, R+D, and high performance staff to collaborate on research, contribute to player development goals, and support data capture and organization. You would be expected to individually stay on top of the latest research and resources in the field of biomechanics and sports science. Experience with statistical programming, modelling, and visualization tools is very helpful, but not required.

To Apply:
To apply, please follow this link.

The content in this posting was created and provided solely by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Chad Dallas emerged as one of the top under-the-radar pitching prospects in the Toronto Blue Jays organization this season. Tossing a system leading 123-and-third innings between High-A Vancouver and Double-A New Hampshire — 18 of his 23 starts came at the higher of the two levels — the 23-year-old right-hander went 9-3 with a 3.65 ERA and a 4.08 FIP. Featuring a spin-to-win five-pitch mix, he fanned 144 batters (also the most in the system) and allowed just 98 hits.

Dallas, Toronto’s fourth round pick in 2021 out of the University of Tennessee, discussed his breaker-heavy arsenal and approach when the New Hampshire Fisher Cats visited Portland, Maine earlier this summer.

———

David Laurila: What is your repertoire and M.O. on the mound?

Chad Dallas: “I throw a four-seam, a slider, a curveball, an occasional changeup, and I recently added a cutter. I spin the ball a lot. I don’t attack a whole bunch of people with the fastball. I like to attack with my offspeed, sort of a pitch backwards kind of deal. Some teams know that, so there are also games where they start sitting soft and I mostly attack them with the heater and the cutter. Either way, I’m out there trying to throw as many strikes as possible.” Read the rest of this entry »

The wild card round is already short enough, and this year, all four matchups ended in sweeps. That’s not much postseason baseball for the Rays, Blue Jays, Brewers, and Marlins. Suffice it to say, none of those teams took October, despite what the t-shirts promised.

While I feel a twinge of heartache for the losing side in any postseason matchup, I feel especially bad for the first-round exits. After a 162-game slog with the playoffs as the only goal, their season is over in the blink of an eye. With time, some will be forgotten as contenders entirely. That seems a shame, considering how well each of these teams performed in the regular season.

With that in mind, I wanted to take one last moment to recognize the playoff performances of Miami, Milwaukee, Toronto, and Tampa Bay, before the winds of the postseason blow on to the Division Series matchups. To be clear, there isn’t a ton to celebrate; they were each swept, after all. Still, every eliminated team had at least one player whose postseason showing deserves a pat on the back. Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve done for the past few years, I’m going to be grading each eliminated postseason manager on their decision-making. We spend the year mostly ignoring managers’ on-field contributions, because to be honest, they’re pretty small. Using the wrong reliever in the eighth inning just doesn’t feel that bad on June 22; there are so many more games still coming, and the regular season is more about managing the grind than getting every possible edge every day. The playoffs aren’t like that; with so few games to separate wheat from chaff, every last ounce of win probability matters, and managers make personnel decisions accordingly. What better time to grade them?

My goal is to rank each manager in terms of process, not results. If you bring in your best pitcher to face their best hitter in a huge spot, that’s a good decision regardless of outcome. Try a triple steal with the bases loaded only to have the other team make four throwing errors to score three runs? I’m probably going to call that a blunder even though it worked out. Managers do plenty of other things – getting team buy-in for new strategies and unconventional bullpen usage behind closed doors is a skill I find particularly valuable – but as I have no insight into how that’s accomplished or how each manager differs, I can’t exactly assign grades for it.

I’m also purposefully avoiding vague qualitative concerns like “trusting your veterans because they’ve been there before.” Coverage of the Twins’ sweep of the Blue Jays focused on Carlos Correa’s crafty veteran playoff leadership, but Royce Lewis, Pablo López, and Jhoan Duran were key parts of Minnesota’s victory too. Forget trusting your veterans – the playoffs are about trusting your best players. Correa is important because he’s a great player and great leader, not because of the number of playoff series he’s appeared in. There’s nothing inherently good about having been around a long time; when I’m evaluating decisions, “but he’s a veteran” just doesn’t enter my thought process. Let’s get to it. Read the rest of this entry »

Whatever happens to the Twins for the rest of the playoffs, at least there won’t be any more talk about laundry-based curses. After five shutout innings from starter Sonny Gray, the Twins continued to keep the Jays’ bats silent en route to a 2–0 win in Game 2 to clinch the wild card series.

If nothing else, Wednesday’s game was a showcase of station-to-station baseball that’s generally unheard of these days. While a certain former All-Star shortstop broadcaster spent much of the game bemoaning Toronto trying to hit for power rather than stringing base hits together, the latter is the one thing the Jays were actually able to do, collecting nine singles on the day. But with the exception of Santiago Espinal, out at second on Matt Chapman’s double-play grounder in the sixth, all Toronto runners finished their innings stranded. The Twins didn’t do any better at hitting for extra bases, but aided by a walk allowed by José Berríos and then another by his controversial replacement, Yusei Kikuchi, their singles came at an opportune moment.

This was only the 21st game in playoff history to feature no extra-base hits, but only three games had more combined hits than the 16 for the Jays and Twins. Those were all higher-scoring affairs — two had 11 runs, and the third had a combined nine — so you can argue that there has never been a playoff game in which the absence of doubles, triples and homers was felt more. Read the rest of this entry »

Extremes in defense were on display as the Wild Card round kicked off on Tuesday afternoon. In the Rangers-Rays opener, Texas left fielder Evan Carter laid out for a great catch of an Isaac Paredes line drive in the first inning, starter Jordan Montgomery dove to make an impressive snag of Jose Siri’s popped-up bunt in the second, and Josh Jung made a nice grab on Manuel Margot’s soft liner in the seventh. On the other side, Siri’s day from hell continued as he missed catching Corey Seager’s wall-banging double in the fifth, then deflected and briefly lost control of a Seager bloop before airmailing it over third base in the sixth, costing the Rays a run. And misery loves company — his Rays teammates made three additional errors in their 4-0 loss.

Meanwhile in Minnesota, center fielder Michael A. Taylor made a pair of exceptional catches, and Carlos Correa saved a run in the fourth by fielding a dribbler that had gone under third baseman Jorge Polanco’s glove, making a sidearm throw home while on the run to keep Bo Bichette from scoring. Read the rest of this entry »

Royce Lewis returned from the injured list on Tuesday to start the Twins’ postseason run. He hadn’t played in a game since September 19 due to a hamstring strain, and it wasn’t completely clear if he would be activated for the series. It’s a decision not without risk. Rushing a player back from a hamstring strain can be suspect, and Lewis’ young career has been filled with health challenges. From a mechanical standpoint, hamstring strains can compromise how you interact with the ground and cause compensations up the kinetic chain.

Given how important every at-bat is in the playoffs, there’s very little room for error. But while Lewis still may not be able to get into a full sprint, that doesn’t matter so much if you’re trotting around the base paths. In his first two at-bats of his playoff career, he took Kevin Gausman yard for two no-doubt home runs, leading the Twins to a 3–1 victory over Toronto and their first postseason win since 2004. Read the rest of this entry »

The playoffs start today, and we are going to cover every single game, from the Wild Card round to the World Series. But those games are played by humans, and those humans have to find a way to avoid murdering each other over the course of a very long season. Inventing goofy celebrations is a good way to inject some fun into the proceedings. This article and its National League counterpart break down how each playoff team celebrates when a player reaches base or the team notches a victory. (I’m going to skip the home run celebrations because they’ve already been covered very thoroughly, and because they’re sure to get plenty of camera time as October unfolds.) The point of this article is to help you enjoy the smaller celebrations that might otherwise go unnoticed.

One important note: This is necessarily an incomplete list. I spent a lot of time looking, but I wasn’t able to track down the origin of every single celebration. When you search for information about a team’s celebration, you have to wade through an ocean of articles about the night they clinched a playoff berth. The declining functionality of Twitter (now known as X) also made it harder to find relevant information by searching for old tweets (now known as florps). When I couldn’t find the truth about a celebration’s backstory, I either gave it my best guess or invented the most entertaining backstory I could think of. If you happen to know the real story behind a particular celebration, or if you’d like to share your own absurd conjectures, please post them in the comments. Read the rest of this entry »