DUNEDIN, Fla. — Even though his employer has yet to acknowledge he’s been given a contract extension, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons sure sounded like a man who had one in hand Wednesday morning.
“It’s always a nice reward,” Gibbons said when asked about his widely-reported-but-not-yet-confirmed extension. “I’m pretty happy and pretty excited.”
While the official line from the club has been that there is no extension, the Blue Jays manager spent 10 minutes talking about an extension Wednesday morning, reflecting on his time with the organization thus far, and what he’d like to accomplish going forward.
This is how we arrived here: Shortly before first pitch of the Blue Jays’ game against the Baltimore Orioles Tuesday, Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reported the Blue Jays and Gibbons were “finalizing a multi-year extension.”
During the game, however, a club official made it clear to Toronto media with the team in Sarasota that there had been no recent progress and there was nothing new to share with regards to an extension. Any reports to the contrary, the club official said, were false.
Asked after Tuesday’s game about swirling rumours regarding an extension, Gibbons said: “It’s common knowledge we’ve been talking about some things. We’ve made good progress. Hopefully it all falls into place.”
Alas, Steve Phillips of MLB Network Radio reported shortly after the game that Gibbons had agreed to a two-year extension with an option for the 2020 season, a report that was confirmed by Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi, who added that it was a club option for 2020.
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As of game time Wednesday, the official line remained that there is no extension. But it’s hard to believe that when Gibbons is making comments like the following:
“We started talking about it a little more intensely when I got down here to spring training. And then it just picked up a little steam,” Gibbons said. “I’m glad to still be here. This has been my whole major league career up here in Toronto. Never would have thought that, coming from down south, you know? It’s been pretty cool. The organization’s been great to me.
“You never know how long these jobs last. Really, coming into last year with a new regime, I didn’t know what to expect. It’s turned out to be a really good working relationship. I’m happy to still be here.”
Gibbons said extension discussions began shortly after the Blue Jays lost the ALCS to the Cleveland Indians last October. But while some progress was made, Gibbons told Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins they could shelve talks until later so that the club could focus on its off-season activity.
“I said, ‘Listen, that’s not a priority right now,’” Gibbons said. “There’s a lot of free agents and he was trying to make some moves to make us better. So, I said, ‘Listen, we can put this on hold.’ And that’s kind of what we did.”
Gibbons said that once he arrived in Dunedin for spring training in mid-February, discussions resumed and quickly advanced. It’s unclear when—or even if, currently, with no confirmation from the club—the two sides reached an agreement, but it’s unlikely it took long for the sides to settle on terms. Judging by public comments, there was certainly mutual interest to get something finalized.
Atkins and Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro have been singing Gibbons’ praises all winter, indicating repeatedly that they’ve been very impressed with the manager they inherited from the club’s previous leadership. Gibbons, too, has said he’s enjoyed getting to know his new bosses, on both a professional and personal level.
“I like the guys. And that’s a big part of it—when you enjoy being around each other,” Gibbons said. “We constantly talk baseball and strategy and player personnel. But there’s more to life than just that. We hit it off immediately. So, my feeling was, regardless of what happens to me, I’ve got a couple new friends and I’ll be fine anyway. I would love to make this work, but if that wasn’t going to happen, I’m A-OK.”
Gibbons first met Shapiro when he was coaching for the Kansas City Royals years ago, and was well aware of his strong reputation as passionate, caring executive throughout the game. He didn’t know Atkins until he came to the Blue Jays last off-season, but says he’s quickly learned they think very much alike.
“We’re having fun together,” Gibbons said. “It’s never easy when you bring new people in—they have the right to have their own people. They’re trying to make it work. But it turned out that we had a pretty solid year last year. They liked what I did. I enjoyed working for them. Things kind of fell in place.”
It can sometimes be awkward for a manager hired by a previous administration to fit in with a new front office, but Gibbons said he’s been able to quickly build a positive relationship with Shapiro and Atkins, who took over the ball club after Gibbons led it to the ALCS in 2015.
There was some speculation about the new regime’s commitment to Gibbons when the 54-year-old’s contract was reworked last March to remove a rollover clause that Gibbons received from previous GM Alex Anthopoulos. The clause added an option to Gibbons’ contract on the first day of each year, essentially guaranteeing he could never become a lame-duck manager.
But with the clause lifted in exchange for a salary increase, Gibbons found himself in exactly that scenario heading into the 2017 season, and technically still is with his extension yet to be confirmed. Yet, on Wednesday, Gibbons said managing without future job security never bothered him.
“I don’t know how much effect that has, to be honest with you,” Gibbons said. “It’s not like the president where everybody stops listening to them. The players are out there focusing on their job. I think for a lot of guys, if that was even brought up, nobody would have even noticed. That’s just my opinion on it. I may be totally wrong.”
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