A chorus of boos rained down on Blue Jays manager John Schneider during yesterday’s Home Opener introduction ceremonies, as the team ended up beating the Mariners to move to 5-6 on the year.
We knew coming into the year that Schneider was likely on the hot seat, and it didn’t take long for him to feel some heat from the fanbase. Is this kind of treatment of the team’s manager justified before they’ve even played a home game? The obvious answer is that it is still very early in the year, with the story of the Blue Jays season still very much in the first chapter. The 11 games played are equivalent to just over one single NFL game played, so it is clearly not time to panic just yet.
Plenty of boos for John Schneider & Guillermo Martínez during the intro ceremony. #BlueJays
The fans know what they want.
— Thomas Hall (@Hall_Thomas_) April 8, 2024
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Nobody should be thrilled with a 5-6 start, but it’s been more about how the team has lost those games that has really irked the fanbase. The team followed up by getting a no-hit against the Astros by mustering up a single base knock just two days later. Scoring just one run in an entire series against a team is an easy way for fans to lose hope in the outlook for this team going forward.
The team’s lack of offense has definitely been the focal point, but it actually ranks 21st in the Majors in OPS so far this year. It’s not a great spot to be, but it’s not awful considering that debacle of a series in Houston. Perhaps a bigger area of concern has been the pitching, which has an ERA of 5.13 thus far, good for 26th in the league.
Congratulations to Atkins’ 24 Blue Jays. First team since 1901 to be no hit and one hit in first week of season
— John Perkins (@JohnPerkins33) April 4, 2024
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It is still too early to really look at numbers and draw conclusions from them, especially considering that a solid game or two would drastically affect these rankings. For the Blue Jays to be at 5-6, considering how they’ve looked, is actually a good sign for the team going forward. Better days are ahead for this club, and they are lucky enough not to be sitting at 2-9 or 3-8 at this point.
Toronto has passionate sports fans who may be a bit quick on the trigger to turn on some of their own. It’s realistically almost impossible for somebody outside of the organization to know how much of the slow start can be attributed to Schneider’s management. However, we’ve seen managers as the easy scapegoat for a team’s struggles before, especially when they initially got the job as an interim hire.
So does Schneider deserve the boos he received on opening day? That’s not exactly easy to say. But it does seem increasingly more likely that the team may be starting to question whether he’s the right man for the job.
ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO
