Indians Mark Shapiro to become new Blue Jays president

The Toronto Blue Jays have found their next team president. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported Sunday that Cleveland Indians president Mark Shapiro was set to take the same job with Toronto. The Blue Jays confirmed Shapiro’s hiring Monday morning.

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Shapiro will replace Paul Beeston, who is expected to retire at the end of the season. Sources told Heyman that Shapiro intends to keep general manager Alex Anthopoulos, which makes sense considering the team’s success this year. Anthopoulos’ contract is up at the end of the season, but Shapiro is expected to retain him.

Shapiro has been a member of the Indians organization since 1991. He worked his way up through the franchise during the 90s, eventually becoming the team’s general manager in 2001. As the club’s GM, Shapiro was named Executive of the Year two times according to Sporting News. He led the team to two first-place finishes in the American League Central.

In 2010, Shapiro was promoted to team president, allowing Chris Antonetti to take over as the club’s general manager. With Toronto, Shapiro should have a much higher payroll. 

After spending so much of his professional career in Cleveland, taking the job with the Blue Jays was obviously a difficult decision:

“Through my 24 years as part of the Cleveland Indians, I have developed a deep emotional and civic attachment to the Indians organization and the Cleveland community,” Shapiro said. “The root of those ties is in the personal relationships that my family and I have built. While weighing those bonds carefully and seriously, I feel the unique and compelling nature of the Blue Jays President/CEO position warranted my consideration. This position represents a unique opportunity for me and one that I felt was the right new challenge to undertake.”

Both Shapiro and Dave Dombrowski had been mentioned as possible candidates for the Blue Jays job for quite some time. Toronto spoke with Dombrowski, but he eventually decided to head to Boston, leaving Shapiro as the most desirable candidate. 

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik