Charlie Montoyo isn’t looking for your approval. He just wants the Jays to win

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This article was published 26/03/2022 (1357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DUNEDIN, Fla.—Start ’em up, after the way they were shut up, snapped out of baseball reveries six months ago.

One win shy of a wild card left the taste of ashes for the Blue Jays. No less so for their skipper, despite the front-facing declarations of pride and pleasure over a 91-71 season, amid a ferocious American League East where four teams racked up more than four score and 10 wins.

Charlie Montoyo had presented an upbeat image in the wake of a Game 162 victory that didn’t count for diddly as both the Red Sox and Yankees put up ninth-inning runs against Washington and Tampa, respectively, staking a claim on the two wild cards, simultaneously driving a stake through Toronto’s heart. But inside the manager was dying a little bit.

“Yes, yes, yes. Deep inside.” Shaking his head. “One game.”

Montoyo can rattle off all the unlucky stars that aligned on the dark side of the moon, denying his swat-happy club a post-season thrill. “We were away from Toronto for two years. That was not home-field advantage. We were here, playing in Dunedin, and the fans were yelling at us when we played the Rays. I coached the Rays and that’s the best home-field advantage they ever had.

“Against the Yankees and Boston, in Buffalo, same thing. It wasn’t easy. Players moving three times. And to win 91 games after all that?”

He’s not professing that Toronto would have won the division had they not been ultra-stricken by the cascading effects of COVID and cross-border rules. “But I’ll tell you what, we would have won one more game, that’s for sure. I knew that in my heart and so did the players. I’m not saying 10 games more, I’m saying one game, which is what it took.”

Nobody complained, Montoyo reminds, just as no one felt sorry for the Jays. “We knew that from the beginning. Nobody cared that we played our games on the road. We made that T-shirt that said: Nobody gives a s—.”

Baseball grinds on and this is all ancient history now, a new season stretching ahead. The last one, though, was a ripening experience for his team, even with tears at the end, particularly among the young guns. Learning that winning is hard and the game can pull the rug out from under your feet, just like that.

“They’re hungry,” says Montoyo, now in his fourth season managing the Jays. “We’re hungry. The momentum that we had last year, going into this year, and then the additions that we made, we feel good about our team.”

Indeed, Montoyo is salivating with the pieces at hand, despite the departure of record-breaking Marcus Semien and Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray. Even if, predictably, he’ll draw endless condemnation from fans who disapprove of his in-game decisions, notably how he uses the bullpen. He doesn’t pay it any mind.

“I’ve always been like that,” Montoyo explains, sitting in his posh new digs at the Jays’ opulent training facility. Recalling how he asked his own mother not to send on newspaper clippings when he successfully managed Durham. “I never read anything. What for? I already know what I did, bad or good.

“I learned that a long time ago. That’s why you don’t see me talking to the MLB channel or nothing. It’s not about me, it’s about winning a championship and I’m all-in. I know from watching other sports, like hockey and basketball, managers always get crushed, always get the blame. So why would I want to read that? Negative doesn’t help anybody.”

Ask him where his own growth is best exemplified in his first major-league managing gig and Montoyo doesn’t even have to think about it: “Dealing with the clubhouse and making sure everyone is happy.”

To that purpose, Montoyo has brought together a leadership group of seven players: George Springer, Teoscar Hernández, José Berríos, Kevin Gausman, Bo Bichette, Jordan Romano and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., just rotated in. “We’ll talk every two weeks, about everything and any little thing. What’s going on? What do you need? Do we want to hit tomorrow? Do we want to fly on the off-day? Just making sure we’re all on the same page.”

The collective has input. And truthfully, Montoyo has enough on his mind, a-roil with this roster’s possibilities and decisions to be made in the next fortnight. An inquisitor asks about the immediate fate of Nate Pearson and would the brass return the flame-thrower to Triple-A as a starter rather than place him provisionally in the big-league ’pen? The strapping guy with the 100-m.p.h. arm has yet to prove himself, it’s true, but in 2021 Pearson agonized through a sports hernia and underwent surgery in October.

“Because we’re going to play so many games in a row, we might need a sixth starter,” the manager muses. “Nate can also be stretched out to come out of the bullpen and throw three or four innings.”

Montoyo is giving serious consideration to a six-pack roto, at least to start, particularly because teams can carry a 28-man roster until May — two added players — to counter the strain caused by a shortened spring training resulting from the 99-day lockout.

“Either a sixth starter or we’ve got the extra-long guy,” says Montoyo.

A strong starter complement roto will benefit a ’pen that provided yeoman service when last season launched and starters scuffled. But overworked relievers were gassed by early summer. This collection of tiffany starters — Berríos, Gausman, Alek Manoah, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Yusei Kikuchi — shouldn’t tax the bullpen. But Montoyo warns stacked innings likely won’t feature through April. “Early on that’s not going to happen because they’re not going to be stretched out. Seventy, 80 pitches max. They might go four or five innings and then the bullpen’s going to have to pitch. Every team’s going to go through that.”

How long it might take to get into “normal” starter rhythm remains to be seen. “Everybody’s different. It’s going to be Manoah’s first full season. In years like this you’ve got to be careful with the pitching. Ramp ’em up too quick — go from 70, 80 pitches to 110 — and you’re inviting trouble.”

This season might mark the end of the opener, too, which Montoyo utilized in 2021, graduate of the Tampa coaching factory that he was. “Usually the opener is used when you’ve got a starter with a 5.00, 6.00 ERA, somebody who can just go four innings, face the lineup once or twice. But you’re not going to see an opener with this team. You feel good about your rotation, you don’t need an opener.”

The manager mentions that his most pleasant surprise last season was Santiago Espinal, a utility guy who both flashed nifty leather in 67 games at third base and hit for a .311 average: “He ended up among the top defensive third basemen. I kept waiting for him to struggle a little bit, but he kept having good at-bats.”

Espinal is expected to inherit second base from the departed Semien in a platoon with Cavan Biggio. Except Montoyo rejects that term. “They can both play in different spots, so you can give another guy a day off. I feel good with Espy at shortstop, Biggio at second or first or right field. I don’t want to lose that.”

Nor does Montoyo have an issue carrying three catchers: Danny Jansen, Reese McGuire and Alejandro Kirk, with No. 1 prospect Gabriel Moreno knocking at the door.

“You know what I love about Danny? Even when he struggled (at the plate), defence is number one. Reese has improved a lot, doing really good. So is Kirk. Not many teams have three good catchers. And then the kid coming up. They’re going to be competing against each other, but they’re all going to be playing. I don’t have a favourite. It’s all about the guy on the mound.

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“With a tough lefty, you might see Reese. But look at the guy who won a Cy last year — with Kirk.” Ray, off to rich pastures in Seattle now, totally simpatico with stubby Kirk last season.

“Ray was comfortable with him,” Montoyo continues. “That’s huge, because the guy on the mound dictates everything.”

The manager, awash in marquee players, scarcely bothers to mention Toronto’s glittery offence, it’s long-ball pyrotechnics.

“We’re going to hit, everybody knows that. But pitching and defence, they’re going to win games.”

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno