Colorado ownership is known as among the majors’ most loyal, so Bud Black is not in huge peril. But follow this bouncing ball: The Blue Jays awarded Charlie Montoyo a one-year extension through next season in spring and Toronto is currently in playoff position. But if the Blue Jays were to stumble, a few executives mentioned the possibility of Black (who has strong ties to Toronto team president Mark Shapiro dating to their time in Cleveland in the 1990s) perhaps being next offseason’s Bob Melvin — Melvin left the eternally penny-pinching A’s for the talented, but underachieving Padres last offseason.

“He’s a genuine guy,” says Black, who sought Shapiro’s counsel when he was weighing managerial posts nearly a decade ago. “He’ll look you in the face and what you see is what you’re going to get.”

But Black says Shapiro’s greatest talent, what separates him from similarly statured executives, is his “ability to grow others.”

That is Shapiro’s legacy in Cleveland, where he built a front office that became something of a farm system for future GMs, including Ross Atkins, whom he hired to replace Anthopoulos.

“As much as we talk about players being good teammates,” Black said, “on the executive side, Mark was a great teammate to those in and around him, not only with the Indians, but throughout the industry.”