Blue Jays hire former Astros GM James Click as VP of baseball strategy
DUNEDIN, Fla. — Shortly after the Houston Astros received the World Series and parted methods with James Click, Ross Atkins reached out to move alongside his greatest. The executives had crossed paths through the years and competed in opposition to each other as basic managers the previous three years and there was some mutual appreciation there.
Eventually, what was subsequent for Click got here up naturally and Atkins informed him that after he was prepared to consider his choices, to contemplate the Toronto Blue Jays. That led to an prolonged set of conferences in January during which the 45-year-old from Durham, N.C., spent a day and a half on the membership’s Player Development Complex assembly division heads and different employees, and eventually his rent as vice-president, baseball technique, a job he begins Wednesday.
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“We were exceptionally excited that he chose us,” mentioned Atkins. “I know he had choices and options.”
Click’s official job description says he’ll workforce with “Atkins and department heads on strategic planning, decision making, and evaluation. He will work across both professional and amateur levels to identify best practises, develop plans, and implement strategies.”
More merely put, he’ll take what he’s discovered from his 15 years with the Tampa Bay Rays and time with the Astros — two of the neatest entrance places of work in baseball — and apply that to what he finds beneath the hood with the Blue Jays.
That will give the group “an objective view of things that we’re doing well, things that we could be doing better,” mentioned Atkins. “We feel very, very good about where we are as an organization, but we’re always trying to get better and his perspective is one that we’re certain can help us from an objective standpoint and subjective standpoint.”
The Blue Jays have employed from each organizations in recent times, bringing Charlie Montoyo over from the Rays and Dave Hudgens, who’s labored in a couple of teaching and hitting roles, over from the Astros.
Atkins conceded that at any time when somebody comes over from one other workforce, there “is a natural inclination for us to be asking questions about how things were done in certain ways.”
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“But really we’re not looking just to learn from what has happened in the past, but more thinking about the best possible practises that could be,” Atkins added. “That is one lens of it where of course you learn from history, but then thinking about the best possible practises, whether it’s decision making, whether the tools that we’re using, the plans that we’re building, how can we think about that more systematically and more strategically to be above what others are doing.”
Beyond increase their roster, the Blue Jays have additionally beefed up their data and expertise base across the membership, from including Don Mattingly as bench coach, to hiring Victor Martinez and rehiring Paul Quantrill as particular assistants to baseball operations, with plans for Edwin Encarnacion and Pat Hentgen to spend time with the workforce this spring exploring bigger roles, too.
Atkins mentioned that wasn’t a part of any concerted effort, however “I suppose there’s some level of us becoming more and more attractive with winning seasons and advanced resources continuing to be built out, and a good environment hopefully that people are attracted to,” he mentioned. “Maybe the resume’s credibility seems higher.”
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