How Blue Jays John Schneider has emerged as an AL manager of the year candidate

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There are benefits that come with managing a first-place baseball team, a status Blue Jays skipper John Schneider admits he’s enjoying – even with a dose of self-deprecating humour to describe it.

“We joked that I became a way better manager over the last three weeks,” Schneider said on Tuesday prior to the Jays bid to win a franchise record extending 12th consecutive home game and six against the visiting New York Yankees. “I was kind of ho hum (before the Jays caught fire.)

“It’s nice people enjoy it, you know, people back home and friends and family and stuff,” Schneider said of some of the reaction he’s getting to the Jays impressive efforts to turn a last-place season into a potentially first-place one.

“People around town like me a lot more than they did. It’s nice to go out for dinner.”

Schneider isn’t gloating – far from it. But when you’e managing a team that has reversed course from a 74-win season that could have had his job on the line this season to one that had on Monday opened a four-game lead on the Yankees through 100 games, well it’s a sign that good things are happening.

Historically, coaches and managers at the helm for such significant turnarounds of professional sports teams immediately become in the running for the year-end awards honouring their work.

And so far, anyway, Schneider has done just that with this group of Jays players that have been described as surprising, to over-achieving, and everything in between.

What unfolds over the remaining 60-plus games of the season ultimately will determine the seriousness of Schneider’s candidacy. The manager recently surpassed three years at the helm following his mid-season replacement of the fired Charlie Montoyo in 2022 and the growth he’s undergone professionally is a big part of the terrific story of this Jays season.

The players have bought in to the approach of Schneider and his incredibly dedicated coaching staff, one that this year has worked to have cleaner and more open lines of communication both up and down – with the front office and to those in the clubhouse.

And despite the joking dismissal of his sudden emergence as a good big-league manager, Schneider has admitted that he indeed is better at the job than he’s been in the past. It’s one thing to manage Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette through multiple levels of the minor leagues. It’s quite another to do it in the big leagues with a mix of veterans and the pulls and pressures that go far beyond just developing talent but to take a team to the playoffs..

Schneider is big (and wise) enough to admit it’s taken him some time. His pragmatism of balancing the needs of driven, professional athletes with that of a front office that is profoundly involved in the day-to-day can be delicate. What we’re seeing so far this year is a team in the truest sense and one that in many ways takes its cues from the skipper.

There is a trust there and a belief that Schneider is willing to make his voice heard to the front office when it’s prudent to do so.

“Every team is different,” veteran George Springer said on Tuesday, when asked to explain the winning dynamic at play. “Every personality, every player, every team has it’s own identity. But this team is unbelievable tight, unbelievably close. Guys are having conversations with each other. It’s everything you could want in a clubhouse.”

Schneider doesn’t get all the credit for that, but he certainly deserves some. He consistently makes good decisions and makes sure that every player on the roster is utilized, even if they are there for a short time. When those “extra” players are engaged and feel they are part of something, it resonates in the dugout and clubhouse. The subtleties of good managing aren’t lost on a team.

There will always be a constituency of Jays fans who crap over whoever is managing the team. From Cito Gaston, to John Gibbons, to Schneider it’s always been the way in this market.

Over a 162-game series there also will be large stretches where second-guessing becomes a pastime. And in a sport like baseball, it can happen on a nightly basis, especially when performance takes a downturn.

But Schneider’s even-keeled approach seems to have resonated this year as he’s stressed to his players that the only game that matters is the one immediately in front of them. That mantra has muted losing streaks and seems to have significantly boosted confidence.

“Obviously once you rattle off a few wins, it makes it easier to believe in it and see it,” Springer said. “But over time things have manifested and guys have really, really bought in to just do their part to help us win.

“Any time you can play for the name on the front and not on the back, you’re in a great spot.”

A team that entered Tuesday’s play a season-high 18 games over .500 at 59-41 is certainly riding a high. Their 36-16 home record is the best in the big leagues and they are playing for and responding to some of the moves of their manager and perhaps most importantly, his prime message delivered in the spring which was to figure out the best way to win on every given day.

With the Jays heading to Detroit for a four-game series starting on Thursday, there’s a good chance Schneider’s candidacy will be discussed, given that Tigers manager A.J. Hinch is the other logical choice for the award.

There’s plenty of baseball still to be played, a reminder Schneider delivers almost daily. But if the Jays can continue on their present path, a last-to-first season will be a difficult temptation for some season-ending voters to resist.