Charlie Montoyo
Jose Carlos Montoyo Diaz
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 5' 10", Weight 170 lb.
- School De Anza College, Louisiana Tech University
- High School Juan Ponce de León High School
- Debut September 7, 1993
- Final Game September 29, 1993
- Born October 17, 1965 in Florida, P.R.
Biographical Information[edit]
Infielder Charlie Montoyo was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the sixth round of the 1987 amateur draft. In 1993, he was traded to the Montreal Expos, and later that year hit a game-winning double in his first big league at-bat on September 7th. Including his debut game, Montoyo played in four major league games that year. He returned to the minors for good in 1994 before beginning a transition to coaching in 1996. In the latter year he served as a player/coach for the Harrisburg Senators and Ottawa Lynx in the Montreal Expos minor league system.
Since his playing career ended, he was a minor league manager for nearly two decades. His managerial stops included the Princeton Devil Rays, Hudson Valley Renegades, Charleston RiverDogs, Bakersfield Blaze and Orlando Rays. After the 2003 season of leading Orlando, Montoyo also managed the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League. Beginning in 2004, he led the Montgomery Biscuits for three years. After the leading the Biscuits to a Southern League championship during the 2006 season, Montoyo was promoted and named manager of the Triple-A Durham Bulls. Montoyo's 2007 Bulls team reached the championship finals of the International League, falling to the Richmond Braves 3 games to 2. With six playoff trips and two titles in eight years at Durham, he was named to the International League Hall of Fame in 2016.
In 2015, he was named third base coach of the major league Tampa Bay Rays under new manager Kevin Cash and in 2018 became the team's bench coach. Following the season, on October 25th, he was named manager of the Toronto Blue Jays for the 2019 season, replacing John Gibbons. Ironically, one of his first stops with his new team was back to Stade Olympique, the site of his major league debut, where the Blue Jays concluded their preseason schedule with a two-game series against the Brewers. On April 9th, when the Jays traveled to Fenway Park for the first time, Montoyo was part of the first major league game to feature two Puerto Rican managers, as the Jays' opponents that day, the Boston Red Sox, were skippered by Alex Cora. While his first season with the Jays was trying, as he broke a number of young players into the starting line-up, he had a very fine season in 2020 when he guided that young team to the postseason, in spite of the fact the Jays could not access their regular home, the Rogers Centre, and had to play their home games on the road or at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, NY due to the Coronavirus pandemic. His excellent work was recognized as he was one of three finalists for the 2020 Manager of the Year Award.
On April 1, 2021, when he guided the Blue Jays to an Opening Day win over the New York Yankees, he recorded the 100th managerial victory of his career. The Blue Jays had issued him a contract extension before the season, happy with the work he had done in his first two seasons at the helm. The Blue Jays continued to improve that year, and although they (barely) missed the postseason, they won 91 games and their run differential was such that they should easily have cleared 95 wins were it not for some bad luck. He was widely praised for his guidance of young players, and for creating a prositive atmosphere in the clubhouse while the team had to work out of three different home ballparks due to the continuing pandemic and its effects on cross-border travel. There was some criticism about some of his in-game decisions, like there is for almost all managers, and he presided over an unusual number of bullpen collapses (hence the team underperforming its Pythagorean percentage, but that was largely due to a lack of reliable relievers apart from closer Jordan Romano, and not necessarily because of his decisions regarding usage. In any case, the front office was very pleased and on April 1, 2022, his contract was extended again, this time until the end of the 2023 season. However, things did not go well that year, as the Blue Jays were unable to recapture the magic of the previous season, at first winning games by one or two runs only on a regular basis, and then falling back progressively in the standings. A string of 8 losses in 10 games in early July, which brough the Blue Jays almost on an equal footing with the 5th-place Baltimore Orioles, was the last straw. On July 13th, he was fired and replaced by bench coach John Schneider.
In 2023, he was appointed bench coach of the Chicago White Sox under new manager Pedro Grifol.
In addition to his work in the United States, Montoyo served as the third base coach for Puerto Rico in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Notable Achievements[edit]
- Postseason Appearance: 1 (2020 - Wild Card)
| Preceded by John Gibbons |
Toronto Blue Jays Manager 2019-2022 |
Succeeded by John Schneider |
Year-By-Year Managerial Record[edit]
Further Reading[edit]
- Gregor Chisholm: "Blue Jays hire Rays coach Montoyo as skipper", mlb.com, October 25, 2018. [1]
- Ethan Diamandas: "Making sense of the Blue Jays’ decision to fire manager Charlie Montoyo", Yahoo! Sports, July 14, 2022. [2]
- Julia Kreuz: "Blue Jays extend manager Charlie Montoyo's contract through 2023 season", Yahoo! Sports, April 1, 2022. [3]
- Gabe Lacques (USA Today): "Toronto Blue Jays fire manager Charlie Montoyo in surprising move", Yahoo! News, July 13, 2022. [4]
- Pascal Milano: "Charlie Montoyo: aux bons souvenirs de Montréal", La Presse, March 27, 2019. [5]
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