The Toronto Blue Jays have fired manager Charlie Montoyo.
The Blue Jays announced the surprising move Wednesday afternoon, naming bench coach John Schneider as Montoyo’s interim replacement for the remainder of the season.
Despite lofty expectations this season, the Blue Jays entered Wednesday with a 46-42 record and in fourth place in the AL East.
Toronto has lost nine of its last 11 games and is 15.5 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East.
The Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night but suffered a four-game series sweep last weekend to the Seattle Mariners (45-42), who entered Wednesday just one-half game behind Toronto in the wild card standings.
Montoyo, 56, is 236-236 in parts of four seasons as Toronto’s manager. He went 67-95 in his first season before leading Toronto to a 32-28 record and a playoff spot during the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
The Blue Jays went 91-71 last season, missing the playoffs by one game, and were widely pegged as a championship contender in 2022 thanks to their talented core featuring Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, George Springer and Alek Manoah along with offseason newcomers Kevin Gausman, Matt Chapman and Yusei Kikuchi.