Alex Anthopoulos Leaving

With the Vancouver Canadians being the Single A club in the Jays organization in MLB we have had the chance to talk with Alex Anthopoulos during his visit to Vancouver and all indication is that he loves the organization and wants to stay.

But as with all changes this never seemed to be a real surprise to some, who speculated this since the recent announcement of Paul Beeston.

He was the first guy hired by Toronto in 1976 and was a 31-year-old accountant who began as VP of business operations.

He was named President and CEO in 1989 and was the boss when the Jays won the World Series in 1992 and 1993.

Eventually he moved to “the big apple” (New York) and served as president of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1997 to 2002.

Now reports out of TO indicate that after an impressive finish reports out of Toronto is that Alex Anthopoulos is leaving the Toronto Blue Jays.

This following the elimination of the Jay’s after the American League East champions were eliminated from the post-season.

It is reported that he simply rejected an extension to remain as GM and the issues at hand are not necessarily thought to be financial.

This happens after the arrival of Mark Shapiro (hired Aug. 31) and is slatted to take over as president and CEO from Paul Beeston stepped down.

The two sides had plenty of time to work out an extension and what should have been straightforward became complicated.

During his season-wrap news conference Anthopoulos stated “it was his decision not to negotiate during the playoffs and all I can say is I love being here, I love Toronto, I’ve always maintained that, and that’s probably as far as I’d go with that.”

The talent he brought in was impressive and have lifted the level of ball not only in Toronto, but Canada back to 1993.

Regardless of the situation, this comes after the franchise ended a post-season drought.