The best day of John Gibbons’ year — the last few years anyway — has been Jan. 1. That’s when the vesting option for the following year of his contract kicks in, giving him additional job security or a built-in severance package, depending on how things go.
The way it works: On Jan. 1 of 2015, Gibbons’ contract to manage the Toronto Blue Jays was guaranteed for the 2016 season. On Jan. 1 of 2016, Gibbons’ contract is locked in for the 2017 season.
For a guy who has spent most of his career on baseball’s fringes, and has already been fired once by the Blue Jays, it’s a nice bit of security to have and was bestowed on him by his friend and now former boss Alex Anthopoulos.
But the easy-going Texan might have something even more valuable in the back pocket of his jeans that could stand him in good stead in what has rapidly turned into a tumultuous off-season for the Blue Jays.
He is — potentially, anyway — a walking, drawling, living, breathing symbol of corporate goodwill.
Gibbons has understandably remained off the radar as news broke about Anthopoulos leaving the club over unspecified philosophical differences with incoming club president Mark Shapiro, who formally takes over on Nov. 1.
But that can’t last long. When Shapiro makes his public rounds early next week, the first question will be what happened between him and Anthopoulos. The second question will be what will happen with Gibbons.
It’s an awkward situation. Through no fault of his own, Shapiro starts his first day of his new job as the villain, the kind of guy who would wrestle a nine-year-old for a foul ball, or force out a homegrown, well-loved general manager.
It’s unwarranted. Paul Beeston long ago set his retirement date Oct. 30. The Blue Jays needed a president, and however ham-handed the executives of Rogers Communications went about the process, it doesn’t change the fact that they weren’t firing a legendary figure in Blue Jays history; they were simply trying to fill his job.
And if Shapiro expects as team president to have considerable say over how his baseball team is operated, well, all that does is give him something in common with the vast majority of the 30 teams in MLB.
However, in failing to make a seamless transition from Beeston to Shapiro, the Blue Jays went from one of the most uplifting stretches in Canadian sports history to a gong show in the space of a few short days.
Which brings us to Gibbons, and leverage. He has spoken with Shapiro, but not recently and not in any substantive way about his future with the team, according to a Blue Jays insider.
We’ll learn more about what plans Shapiro has in the coming days and weeks, but the one thing you would think he wants to avoid — and perhaps more importantly, that Rogers would like to avoid — is getting the Blue Jays fan base even more riled up than they are already, if that’s possible.
Coming in next week and being non-committal with regard to Gibbons would be like kicking the hornet’s nest just as it (might) have begun to settle down.
The simplest thing for Shapiro to do would be to be clear and unequivocal in stating that Gibbons, who has a .506 winning percentage managing in Toronto over eight seasons, will be back for another year.
It would achieve multiple goals in one fell swoop, beyond giving Gibbons his baseball Christmas a couple of months early.
First, it would rid Shapiro of a question that will otherwise nag and linger until it’s dealt with.
Second, it would send a message to his clubhouse that continuity is going to be established.
And third, it would be one less question he’d have to deal with as he ventures out into the free agent market to shore up a pitching staff that has some gaping holes at the moment.
If Shapiro really wants to turn the tide he could even go so far as to offer Gibbons an extension, which might be a smart move on a number of levels.
To begin with a three-year extension really isn’t that big of a risk, given that on Jan. 1 Gibbons is effectively on two-year contract with an option anyway.
A three-year deal would simply cap it, and one extra year of a manager’s salary is hardly the kind of expense that would break a ball club that has been operating a $140-million payroll for the past two seasons.
And if that’s the price of some goodwill as Shapiro goes about trying to pick up the pieces left from the fallout of this week, then it’s probably worth the investment.