J.P. Ricciardi fired

Kevin Towers getting fired is a surprise. This, not so much:

The Toronto Blue Jays have fired general manager J.P. Ricciardi. Interim CEO Paul Beeston announced the move on Saturday, saying he felt it was time for a change.

Ricciardi has been in charge of the team since Nov. 14, 2001, posting four winning seasons and four losing ones. It was a controversial reign with poor free agent signings and off-field missteps overshadowing some productive drafts and other good moves.

His greatest failing was an inability to find a way past the Yankees and Red Sox and into the postseason.

I’d argue that his second greatest failing was his utter inability to communicate with people, including the press and his underlings. When J.P. started, he had a good team of people around him, including Baseball Prospectus/ESPN’s Keith Law. Slowly but surely he began to alienate and drive away people like Law and others within the organization. In the past few years he has routinely thrown Jays’ players and personnel under the bus as the team came crashing down around him.

People will cite the Yankees and Red Sox as the Jays’ biggest hurdle, but the fact of the matter is that the Jays are worse off in 2009 on their own terms than they were in 2001 when Ricciardi was hired.