Indians President Mark Shapiro "has emerged as a strong candidate to join the Blue Jays in a similar role," according to sources cited by Ken Rosenthal of FOXSPORTS.com. Sources said that the Blue Jays "have spoken to Shapiro about replacing" outgoing President & CEO Paul Beeston. Sources added that the Jays "interviewed former Tigers president Dave Dombrowski," before he landed with the Red Sox. Rosenthal noted it is "unclear" the impact that the hiring of a new club president "would have on the future" of Blue Jays Senior VP/Baseball Operations & GM Alex Anthopoulos. Sources said that Anthopoulos’ contract "expires Oct. 31." They added that the idea of replacing Beeston "holds appeal for major-league executives because of both the autonomy that the team would offer and the resources that could be available" (FOXSPORTS.com, 8/20). SPORTSNET.ca's Shi Davidi wrote a "reasonable case can be made" that the Blue Jays' best move may be promoting Anthopoulos "into a president of baseball operations role." There are multiple reasons this "might be the right long-term play, especially if the ownership at Rogers Communications Inc., reaches the conclusion that the baseball side of the team is in good shape." It is "reasonably safe to assume Anthopoulos ... will be offered some sort of extension, at minimum to continue on as GM." He has "earned it," and unless the next Blue Jays president "wants to strip the club down and reset it -- and really, the organization is positioned reasonably well to compete for the next few seasons, so why would you want to do that? -- such an influential voice at president isn’t necessarily needed" (SPORTSNET.ca, 8/19).
