Could Mark Shapiro be moving on?
5 years ago
So, it’s no secret that some people on the Blue Jays beat have written and talked about this ‘Mark Shapiro vs. Rogers’ thing over the past couple of weeks. And a writer for the Boston Globe has added some meat to the Shapiro leaving Toronto saga, too. The very busy Mark Shapiro, who, according to the one and only Steve *HOT DOG* Simmons, is also writing under the byline of Andrew Stoeten for The Athletic, is to be blamed for everything terrible in Toronto. And, I guess, some really good stuff at The Athletic Toronto, as well.
Every wise fan out there knows that Rogers’ corporate plot to destroy baseball in Canada is now in full swing. And Mark Shapiro, who was hired to plant the corporate seed of destruction, is the little suit-and-tie puppet waving his little Rogers corporate middle finger at all of us.
And that’s why these reports that Shapiro is having problems with Rogers must be so surprising to all these ‘shatkins-whatevers’ out there. All these people who think that Shapiro is a corporate lackey must be at sea with this news. I mean, how the hell could a corporate yes-man stand up against the very corporation to whom he is so loyal?
None of this makes sense.
Now, of course, none of us knows the details of this story, even though a lot of what we have all heard or read does make complete sense. Because let’s be honest: it’s probably been frustrating for Shapiro to try and get the cash-rules-everything-around-rogers CREAM to upgrade the concrete box designed in the eighties that lacks personality and soul, and fails to deliver a true baseball experience. The Rogers Grill sure as hell isn’t helping customer satisfaction, that’s for sure. Big *sarcastic* thumbs up, Rogers.
The truth is, I bet that it’s really hard for Shapiro to get things done with these stadium upgrades, as he sits in board meetings with CEO Joe Natale, CFO Tony Staffieri, and company. Shapiro is a baseball executive, an intelligent business human, and a person who seems focused on building a sustainable future for the Blue Jays’ organization: a person who seems sincere about improving the overall baseball experience for fans.
So Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo had this to add to the Mark Shapiro leaving Toronto thing:
Mark Shapiro, president, Blue Jays — Here’s a hypothetical with some meat to it: There’s a strong relationship and mutual respect between the Shapiro family and the Wilpons, who own the Mets. If Shapiro could get out of his Toronto contract, would he take over the Mets and provide some much-needed stability?
You mean the same stability he’s bringing back to the Jays’ organization? The same much-needed stability that is needed for this organization, so that it doesn’t end up reliving the post ’94 strike? I have a really hard time seeing Shapiro try to get out of his contract, so that he can fix the Mets. When Shapiro is done here in Toronto, the only job he’s going to take is Bobby Manfred’s, in my very honest opinion. Cafardo goes on to add:
And if that were to happen would Dan Duquette be in line to replace Shapiro in Toronto? After all, the Rogers ownership had targeted Duquette to run the Blue Jays before Shapiro was hired, and the Angelos family in Baltimore nixed it. Duquette is at the end of his contract and as far as we know, there’s still been no movement to let Duquette know whether he’s staying in Baltimore even after the great job he did in trading Baltimore’s veteran assets and saving the Angelos family more than $60 million. Again, just wondering.
Could you imagine? Shapiro gets out of his contract in Toronto and leaves for the Mets. A bunch of great executives follow. Jays fans get stuck with Dan Duquette. The same Dan Duquette who had this to say about José Bautista in an interview with MLB.com last year:
MLB.com: You expressed no interest in Jose Bautista this offseason, saying, “Jose is a villain in Baltimore and I’m not going to go tell our fans that we’re courting Jose Bautista for the Orioles because they’re not going to be happy.” How often do you consider something like fan reaction when considering potential acquisitions?
Duquette: (Laughs) Well that was an easy one; our fans just don’t like Jose. We play those guys 25 times a year and he’s the face of the Blue Jays. He’s the villain in the play whenever we play the Blue Jays. I like our guys. Our guys are good. [Mark] Trumbo is like a working-class-type baseball player. If he was going to work every day on a construction site, you would understand that he brings that kind of work ethic every day. That’s the kind of player that our fans identify with. We try to get gritty players that work hard every day and give their best effort every day. Our fans seem to like that and respond to it.
Remember the working-class nonsense? I don’t need to get into that *racist* garbage. But, the last thing that the Jays’ organization needs is Dan Duquette bringing that trash here to Toronto. For all of you fickle fans who want to fire Shapiro into the sun: if you get your wish and he leaves and someone like Dan Duquette comes here to Toronto, maybe you will want to fire yourself into the sun, too.
Who knows? Maybe, we’ll all get our wish and Rogers will sell the Jays. Maybe they could just sell the team to Ed Rogers to get them off the corporate books. Ed Rogers seems to like Mark Shapiro…
And if Rogers could ‘sell’ the team to Ed, he might add to these encouraging signs…
I honestly don’t know enough about this stuff to really talk about the idea of Ed Rogers taking over the organization. But, I can’t see Mark Shapiro trying to get out of his contract to help bring back some stability to the Mets. If Shapiro is having difficulty trying to squeeze some cash from Rogers, is that enough reason for him to move his family and leave Toronto?
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