Alex Anthopoulos said some annoyingly cryptic things about the future of John Gibbons.
I'll admit, the thing that drive me nuts about Alex is his refusal to ever give a straight answer in an interview. John Lott called it "practised ambiguity". J.P. Ricciardi had his "it's not a lie if we know the truth", whatever that was supposed to mean. Alex, well, Alex doesn't lie, mostly because he won't come out and make a direct statement, so it is hard to call anything he says a lie.
Last week, questioned on the report that the Jays were going to give Melky a qualifying offer. The obvious answer would be "of course we are going to give him a qualifying offer, we aren't idiots". But no he says something 'we won't think about that until October'. Now, that's gotta be a lie, of course they have thought about, talked about and decided that the will give Melky the offer. If they don't, it would be stating that there are major problems with the team. I don't know what would have been wrong with just saying yes Melky will get a qualifying offer, unless we work out a contract first. Why not just be straight forward?
Yesterday, Alex was questioned about the future of John Gibbons.
Asked if Gibbons would be back next year, Alex said:"He's under contract," Anthopoulos repeated, and here's where things started to get a bit murky.
"I've said this before," Anthopoulos said. "I'm a big believer that no matter what position - grounds crew, administrative assistant, manager, coach - you support them until you don't support them."
What?
That's taking cryptic to the next level.
I don't get it, he has to know that a line like that would get everyone's attention. First of all, let's mention the subtle insult of grouping the manager or an administrative assistant with the grounds crew. I mean, yeah the grounds crew is important but no reporter would be interested in members of the grounds crew being let go.
If Alex wanted the get us wondering about Gibbons future with the team, he did a great job. I didn't have any doubts that Gibby would be back, and then I read that and started considering who they could choose to replace him. During last night's pregame show, Jeff Blair, suggested Pat Hentgen could be the next manager, something he wouldn't have offered up, if Alex hadn't put it into out minds that Gibby is on thin ice.
Shi Davidi has a post up saying that Gibbons' job is not in jeopardy. In it he mentions that:
issuing a vague non-endorsement endorsement this week, general manager Alex Anthopoulos did John Gibbons no favours.
Yep, he really didn't help Gibby out.
I think he's right, I don't think that Gibbons is in immediate danger of losing his job. I think he's done alright as manager. His job should be safe.
That is. unless, there are huge changes this off-season. Paul Beeston might be leaving, whoever replaces him might replace Alex and then Gibbons would be the next to go.
I live Alex, I think he's done a pretty good job, he's made some mistakes and some things things didn't work out the way he hoped they would, but I think he's as good a GM as any. But I would like him to be more straight forward interview. Be honest. Stop thinking that the media is the enemy and that they can't be trusted with any information. Part of the job is dealing with the media, do it more honestly.
Let's put up an approval poll for Gibbons.