Blue Jays extend manager Charlie Montoyo

The Blue Jays have agreed to a contract extension with manager Charlie Montoyo, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Montoyo, who’d been set to enter the final season of his contract, is now signed through the 2023 season on a contract that also gives the Jays club options for the 2024  and 2025 seasons.

Montoyo, 56, is entering his fourth season as the Blue Jays’ skipper. The former Rays bench coach replaced John Gibbons, who’d managed the Jays for six seasons (2013-18) in his second stint with the team. Montoyo inherited a Jays roster that was still in the finishing stages of a rebuild and posted the type of record one would expect from such a club (67-95), but the Jays have enjoyed winning a pair of winning seasons in Montoyo’s second and third years at the helm. The 2020 Jays reached the playoffs in 2020’s expanded 16-team field but did not advance beyond the first round of play.

Expectations for the Jays are wildly different now than when Montoyo was first hired. No longer are the Jays viewed as an up-and-coming postseason dark horse. Fresh off a 91-win season, the Jays are buoyed by an explosive core featuring young stars like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Alek Manoah, in addition to veteran acquisitions such as George Springer, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Matt Chapman (among others). The Blue Jays are clear-cut postseason contenders in a stacked American League East, and anything shy of a postseason berth will be seen as a disappointment — particularly in light of the expansion from a 10-team field to a 12-team field (which would’ve been enough for the ’21 Jays to get into the playoffs).