Charlie Montoyo is the newest name in the Blue Jays manager search

I wrote last week that the Jays were down to five candidates for their manager search — Joe Espada (the Houston Astros bench coach), David Bell (the San Francisco Giants’ farm director), Rocco Baldelli (the Tampa Bay Rays’ major-league field co-ordinator), and Brandon Hyde (the Chicago Cubs’ bench coach) — but it seems another name has been added to the list. Tampa Bay Rays bench coach, per Jon Heyman, is interviewing for the job on Tuesday.

David Bell was already hired by the Cincinnati Reds, so he’s out of the mix. Joe Espada seems to be the frontrunner, but, of course, anything can happen.

So, what do we know about Montoyo? He’s been a part of the Rays’ big league coaching staff since 2015 and he actually originally interviewed for their vacant managerial position prior to that season. Of course, Kevin Cash ended up with the gig. He’s a bit of a different candidate than the other people the Jays have interviewed as he’s the only one without front office experience but he’s managed at just about every level below the Major Leagues. Montoyo was born and raised in Puerto Rico and played his only big league games with the Montreal Expos in 1993.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend to know a bunch about Montoyo, but given how progressive the Rays are and how well they’ve done despite their $10 budget, I wouldn’t complain about poaching anybody from their organization.

The Jays are likely expanding their search here and adding new candidates to the fold because they’re competing with other teams with vacancies. As mentioned earlier, Bell, one of their reported finalists, took the job with the Reds, and two other finalists, Baldelli and Hyde, are finalists in Minnesota’s manager search.