Finally, JP Ricciardi gets turfed

At the end of this season, the Toronto Blue Jays fired their general manager JP Ricciardi. And the fans rejoiced. In eight seasons, JP let the team to a cumulative slightly below .500 record, one second place finish and no playoff appearances. Then he was fired, and the fans rejoiced.

Maybe not all the fans, but I guarantee you, I rejoiced. I’m still rejoicing. I’ll be rejoicing for a long time, because JP Ricciardi is without a doubt one of the worst GM’s you could have. Sure, there are GM’s with worse records, there are GM’s who have made worse movies, and there are GM’s with less likability, but there’s no one in the last 8 years who has managed to combine all those things into such a stunning record of ineptitude, yet not lost his job. Until now, when I rejoice.

Here’s a brief rundown of just 10 of JP’s more bone-headed moves, not in any particular order, but just here because they are things that piss me off:

1. JP either never had a plan, or was never able to communicate is plan, or couldn’t stick with his plan. First, it was going to be Moneyball. Then, the Jays were going to spend big money to compete with the Yankees and the Red Sox. At some point, they were all abut the young guys. You never knew what to expect.
2. Signing Frank Thomas to a 2 year contract, then eating the second year. Typical of the lack of any kind of ability to create and stick to a strategy, Thomas was brought in provide a power bat at DH. And he did that, with 26 home runs and 95 RBIs for fairly unspectacular Jays team. Then, after a slow 16 game start to the following season, The Big Hurt was cut by the team, because apparently he didn’t fit with the plan anymore. But he did walk away with $8 million he wasn’t asked to earn. Way to go JP.
3. Treating Roy Halladay like garbage is unacceptable. Roy Halladay is arguably the greatest pitcher in franchise history, not only an elite player, but an outstanding human being and team ambassador as well. And how does JP reward that greatness? By publicly dangling an incredibly talented and loyal player in an embarrassing trade spectacular. For a month, JP let his all-star pitcher twist in the wind, sharing every little trade tidbit with the media, and disrespecting him every time he opened his mouth. And when JP couldn’t even manage to pull off the franchise-redefining trade, it meant the only result of the whole effort was to screw with a guy who gave everything to the Jays. Thanks JP, good job.
4. JP gave the team a series of weak and ineffective managers who would never be able to challenge his power base as Grand Poobah of the team. Managers Buck Martinez, Carlos Tosca, John Gibbons were all of the “grateful for the opportunity” and cheap variety. And naturally, they didn’t produce much more than mediocrity before being sacrificed by a GM refusing to accept responsibility for the mediocre roster he had produced. Eventually, Cito Gaston was brought back to manage the team, but that never felt like JP’s move; it had all the fingerprints of a call being made from higher up.
5. It’s not so much the $10 million a year Alex Rios received from JP, though once again, the lack of productivity made that contract feel like grand larceny on the player’s part. No, this was for the way Rios left town. He was put on waivers and claimed by the White Sox. And JP let Rios go, for nothing. Not even a 35 year old AA catcher. Not even the proverbial bag of balls. And yet, only weeks before at the major league trading deadline, there was some interest in Rios. Would that have led to a deal? Who knows. Was this even JP’s choice, or was this another decision from on high, to save money by a franchise that had blown a lot of money on bad deals? We’ll never know for sure, but still, thanks for that one JP.
6. Think Alex Rios was bad? Vernon Wells contract and performance are even worse. Wells had one great season, and was given a contract that will saddled the team with over $20 million in salary for the next three seasons. For a player who just finished the year hitting .260 with 15 home runs and 66 RBIs. Wonderful. Wells is a nice complementary player, but at his best right now, he’s maybe the third or fourth best player on the team, but he’ll be making elite dollars. Thanks again JP.
7. The Adam Dunn debacle defies belief. How many professional sports general manager can you think of who openly badmouth a player (and potential free agent) about his dedication to the game. And yet, that’s just what Ricciardi did, questioning Adam Dunn as a player on local radio. Dunn is a two dimensional player (he walks, he hits home runs, or he gets out), but he’s still a player who could have proven useful to the Jays and would probably have been amenable to coming to Toronto. And yet JP had to trash the guy, not only angering Dunn, but making the Jays look like a complete bush league operation by comparison. Smart job JP.
8. For all the hot minor league prospects that have come through the Toronto system in 8 years, it wasn’t until 2009 that any of them actually achieved at a superstar level. Aaron Hill and Adam Lind hit the bigtime this past year, with over 30 home runs and 100 RBIs each. Whatever happened to John Ford-Griffin or so man of the never-weres? Instead, we got rosters littered with mediocre Lyle Overbay-type major leaguers and failed retreads like Victor Zambrano, resulting in failure and mediocrity. Another JP Ricciardi classic.
9. Letting Chris Carpenter go, to rehab with another organization. In this case, the Cardinals, where he has won one Cy Young and is the favorite for a second as the 2009 season wraps up. After a career threatening injury, the Jays were content to cut ties with Carpenter, who spent a year rehabbing, then proceeding to become a perennial all-star in the process. Would he have re-found himself in Toronto? Again, we’ll never know, but I do know a guy JP let go is probably going to have two Cy Young awards on his shelf. And neither of those will have been won in Toronto. Way to dodge that bullet JP.
10. JP Ricciardi treated Toronto fans like rubes who didn’t understand what a complete and total genius he was. It’s true, we never appreciated just how fantastic he was at nurturing mediocrity, failing at every endeavour, and treating the team’s fans like they don’t know a thing about the game. How he lasted this long, on that basis alone, is incredible. Congrats for that one JP.

So as you can see, eight years was about eight years too many, and there’s probably not an intelligent baseball fan in Toronto who’s not dancing on the grave of JP Ricciardi’s career. Including yours truly. I’m doing an irish jig.