Toronto Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston signs autographs before the start of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009, in Baltimore.Rob Carr
Any doubts about the immediate future of Cito Gaston with the Toronto Blue Jays were erased last night when the American League club announced the 65-year-old manager will be back next season to honour the final year of his contract.
After that, Gaston will have a soft landing, retiring to become a consultant with the Blue Jays for the start of the 2011 Major League Baseball season.
As part of the four-year consulting agreement he has agreed to, Gaston will advise and consult in all areas of the team's baseball operations, including the major-league club, spring training, minor-league operations and scouting.
"Cito felt that past 2010 it was time for him to move into a new role," Blue Jays rookie general manager Alex Anthopoulos said last night in a telephone conference call. "We had talked about it in the past, that there was going to be an opportunity for him to move into a consulting role. And he even talked about it a little bit last year that 2010 might be his last year with us [as a manager]
"At this time, after reviewing everything, this was the right move for the organization going forward. This was carefully thought out, everyone had a chance to state their opinions, give feedback."
It would also appear that the likelihood that Gaston would be fired at any point next year if the team struggles is now very remote given the new terms of his deal with the club.
"You never know what lies ahead, what can happen, what can occur," Anthopoulos said. "There's no question we have faith in Cito Gaston going forward as the manager for 2010 as we have faith in everybody in this staff."
The Blue Jays also announced that pitching coach Brad Arnsberg, who helped develop the Blue Jays staff into one of the top units in baseball, has quit with one year left on his deal to accept a job as pitching coach with the Houston Astros.
The Blue Jays have named Bruce Walton as their new pitching coach.
Walton has been Toronto bullpen coach for the past seven years.
Walton' spot in the bullpen will be filled by Rick Langford, who served as a roving minor league pitching coach for the Blue Jays last season.
In other moves the Blue Jays said Gene Tenace, their 63-year-old hitting coach, has chosen to retire.
His job will be filled by Dwayne Murphy, who coached first base this past season.
Murphy's job at first will be filled by long-time Blue Jays minor league coach Omar Malave.
Brian Butterfield, after serving as bench coach for the Blue Jays for the previous two seasons, will return to his former role as the club's third-base coach.
Nick Leyva, who manned third-base duties last season, will work in the dugout as Gaston's right-hand man in 2010.
There had been some doubts if Gaston would be allowed to continue as manager after the Blue Jays, despite a strong start to the 2009 season, self-destructed to a 75-win year.
The season ended with J.P. Ricciardi being fired as GM by president Paul Beeston who also had to deal with a growing discord in the clubhouse between some of the players and Gaston.
After conducting an overall operational review, the newly-hired Anthopoulos said he found that much of the reported strife between the players and Gaston was "overblown slightly" by the media.
"Overall it was very clear to me, these moves, these changes, this setup and this staff going forward was absolutely the right staff," he said.