TORONTO - They sat shoulder to shoulder on the podium and it was hard to tell who was getting a bigger kick out of the moment, Alex Anthopoulos or John Farrell.
Throughout this Blue Jays managerial search, Anthopoulos has been seeking not so much an employee but a partner, a manager who shares the vision that Anthopoulos has created for this franchise. In Farrell, he found his soulmate, a man with a background in player development with a major in pitching and, most importantly, a reputation as a leader and a communicator.
During a conversation in the summer, Anthopoulos outlined the kind of man he was looking for.
“At this level,” Alex said, “pretty well everybody you consider is going to have the baseball knowledge that is necessary. What I’m looking for is somebody who can relate to the players and communicate that knowledge. To me, that’s what makes a manager.”
Farrell is a big man with an intellect to match and a certain charisma when he walks into a room. He has had, over the last few years, requests to interview for various managing positions and has turned them all down. At first, he felt he wasn’t ready to make the step. More recently, he has been waiting for the right situation.
“He was ready this winter. He wanted to go through the process this winter,” Boston manager Terry Francona told ESPNBoston.com. “Last winter he didn’t want to waste anybody’s time, or be disrespectful. Once he wanted to do it, it was only a matter of who was going to be lucky enough to have him.
“He’s one of my best friends in the world and he’s going to be tremendous at whatever he wants to do.”
During the interview process, as Anthopoulos and his staff reached out to any credible sources to learn more about a man he did not know personally, the more impressed he became. At the same time, Farrell was doing his own digging, learning as much as he could about the franchise, its direction and its ownership.
“We have a common bond here,” Farrell said. “Going through this interview process, it became clear the direction this organization is heading, the resources that are available to support a club that is going to compete and compare with New York and Boston, in time.
“Those were all clear selling points.”
Of course this first exposure to Toronto was destined to be a love-in. Perhaps more telling are some of the things being written and said in Boston, where Farrell left a huge impression. On his often outspoken blog, former pitcher Curt Schilling called Farrell’s departure “an enormous loss.” Schilling’s description of Farrell’s personality dovetails exactly with the type of person Anthopoulos was seeking.
“He’s confident without being arrogant, smart without sounding demeaning or superior,” wrote Schilling. “People still believe the best managers in the game are the best tacticians and strategists. I’ve never believed that. The best managers in the game, the best leaders in business, are the people who put their “players” in the best position to succeed every single day, and they communicate that.”
Anthopoulos said his search began with about 40 names and was pared to 20 very quickly. He interviewed 16 men and four made the next cut. Blue Jay coach Brian Butterfield, DeMarlo Hale, also a Red Sox coach, and Sandy Alomar, Jr., were the others.
Once Anthopoulos had finished the interview process last Monday, he went into hiding for a couple of days to collect his thoughts and make his final decision. He offered the job to Farrell on Friday and within a couple of hours they had an agreement. Neither Anthopoulos nor Farrell would discuss terms of the deal.
ken.fidlin@sunmedia.ca
