NEW YORK — Development is always the priority in the minor-leagues but as the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats broke camp this spring, manager John Schneider looked at a roster fronted by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, and believed he had a championship club.
So, the 38-year-old managed his team in exactly that fashion, telling his players in April that he wanted them to not only expect to win, but also to learn how to play to win every single day.
A 76-62 regular season that was good for second in the Eastern League’s Eastern division followed, culminating in a 6-0 playoff run that clinched the club’s third title. That made it consecutive years with a championship in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system for Schneider, who led advanced-A Dunedin to a share of the Florida State League crown last year.
“First and foremost, we tried to establish a positive winning culture knowing we were going to be talented,” Schneider said over the phone before hopping on a plane for a quick trip home before he joins the Blue Jays as an extra coach next week. “You look at the way we played, you look at the personalities that meshed together and nobody wanted to leave (after Friday’s clinching 8-5 win over Akron), which says a lot about the culture we had.
“Then you look at the year Cavan Biggio had, the improvements Bo Bichette made at short, seeing Vladdy getting better every day at third and tearing the cover off the ball, Max Pentecost and the month of August he had, T.J. Zeuch — there are so many things that really stand out.”
[snippet id=3305549]
The totality of the team’s achievements beyond the championship is impressive.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Sean Reid-Foley, Justin Shafer and Jonathan Davis each graduated to the big-leagues.
The Eastern League named Biggio both its MVP and rookie of the year, while Schneider took home manager-of-the-year honours. Guerrero dominated the loop until his promotion to triple-A Buffalo, while Bichette made gains while facing adversity for the first time as a hitter.
Pentecost battled through early-season struggles to be named Eastern League player of the month in August while logging a heavy workload behind the plate for the first time since a series of shoulder injuries threatened his career.
Starters Jordan Romano of Markham, Ont., Zeuch and Jon Harris all made gains. Outfielder Harold Ramirez rebounded from a poor 2017 while trade acquisitions Forrest Wall and Santiago Espinal provided important lifts.
They were far more than just Guerrero, Bichette and Biggio.
“Those three guys get a lot of the attention, and rightfully so. They’re all very talented and had great years,” said Schneider. “But you can’t forget about the job by guys like Max Pentecost, we had Gurriel at the start, Travis Bergen (who allowed two earned runs in 35.2 innings) and what he did in the back-end of the bullpen, Zeuch, obviously — the team was loaded with talent.
“It was fun to steer that ship and keep them on a winning path all year long while getting our work done, too.”
[relatedlinks]
Those two things don’t always go hand in hand in the minors, but when they do, it can lead to big things in the majors. John Gibbons was the bench coach for the Kansas City Royals when they started graduating a young core featuring Eric Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon to the majors after they’d won together at multiple levels.
Eventually, they won the 2015 World Series after losing in seven games the previous year.
“I think it’s important to learn to how to win,” said Gibbons. “The minor-leagues is about developing, but winning is a part of development, too. So, I think it’s huge. It gets a little harder when you get here, but I think it will help … because they start expecting to win.”
Schneider described the competing interests as a fine line, one that he’s now walked successfully in consecutive years.
“I looked at it like, ‘This is a team that has an opportunity to win’ — on paper, it was a pretty damn good team,” said Schneider. “I managed accordingly, showing them I wanted to win, whether it was matching up out of the bullpen or whatever it was. I tried to quietly instill that. In my mind, you can do both.
“You can develop and you can win, and if each step along the way you reinforce how important winning is, how important being a good teammate is, you’re going to get the best of both worlds.”
