The Toronto Blue Jays Have Hired an Associate Manager

After bowing out early in each of their last three playoff appearances, the Toronto Blue Jays have hired Demarlo Hale as their associate manager for the 2024 season.

He will work under manager John Schneider and previously served on Terry Francona's staff with the Cleveland Guardians.

Hale has been around the game for a long time, coaching with the Atlanta Braves before Cleveland and with Toronto prior to Atlanta.

Per an MLBTradeRumors article on the news:

It isn’t exactly clear what Hale’s associate manager title will cover, but it’s possible some of (Don) Mattingly’s bench coach duties might fall to Hale if Mattingly is going to be doing some hitting coach-type stuff. Mattingly is also a candidate for the open managerial vacancy in Milwaukee, so perhaps Hale gives the Jays a fallback if the Brewers end up plucking Mattingly away.

The Brewers are expected to have better clarity on their managerial situation by the end of the week. Only them and the Padres haven't made hires yet, so once San Diego does, Milwaukee will have its choice of candidates.

The Blue Jays have been one of the most frustrating teams in baseball over the last few years. Armed with superstar talent like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, and Kevin Gausman, Toronto was swept in the AL wild card series this past year by the Minnesota Twins. They were swept in the 2022 season in the same round by the Seattle Mariners and also were eliminated early in the COVID 2020 season. They failed to make the playoffs in 2021.

Now, guys like Guerrero Jr. and Bichette are getting more expensive through arbitration and some people are wondering if the window has already began to close.

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