Mark Shapiro

Mark Shapiro

• School Princeton University
• High School Gilman School

• Born April 3, 1967 in Cambridge, MA USA

Biographical Information

Mark Shapiro was the General Manager of the Cleveland Indians from 2001 to 2010. He had been with the club since 1992. He was the director of player development from 1993 to 1998 and assistant GM from 1999 to 2000.

Prior to joining the Indians, Shapiro played college football at Princeton University. On February 18, 2010, it was announced that he would take over as President of the Indians at the end of the season, with his assistant, Chris Antonetti, taking over as GM. He stayed in the position until 2015.

On August 31, 2015, Shapiro joined the Toronto Blue Jays organization to replace team president Paul Beeston, who was retiring at the end of the year. However, while the Blue Jays played in the postseason for the first time since 1993 that fall, things came to a head with young General Manager Alex Anthopoulos, widely praised for building the team into a winner. Shortly after the Blue Jays lost the 2015 ALCS to the Kansas City Royals, Anthopoulos departed, having been unable to come to an agreement with Shapiro on a contract extension. Tony LaCava replaced Anthopoulos on an interim basis, then on December 4th, Shapiro hired one of his former underlings in Cleveland, Ross Atkins to be Toronto's permanent GM.

While the Blue Jays returned to the postseason in 2016, and once again bowed out at the Championship Series stage, the foundations quickly caved in. In 2017, they finished fourth and were never in the running in 2018 either, as attendance took a huge dip. In September of that year, there were reports that top management was very unhappy with the turn of events, especially as the Atlanta Braves, who were now steered by Anthopoulos, were on their way to returning to the postseason after a long absence with their GM receiving a lot of credit. Rumors were that Shapiro was looking to join the New York Mets, clearing the way for another management team to supervise the rebuilding that had already started in Toronto.

Preceded by John Hart

Cleveland Indians General Manager 2002-2010

Succeeded by Chris Antonetti

Further Reading

• Steven Psihogios: "Blue Jays' Mark Shapiro shoots down reported rift with team owners", Yahoo! Canada Sports, September 8, 2018. [1]