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John Schneider is the Blue Jays manager.

Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider admitted he was “surprised” that the Boston Red Sox fired Alex Cora.

Schneider has managed against Cora for many years in the bloodbath that is the American League East. On Saturday, the Red Sox shocked the baseball world when they announced they had fired Cora and a number of his coaching staff members. When asked by reporters after the Blue Jays beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-2 on Sunday in Toronto, Schneider gave his honest thoughts on his longtime rival getting canned.

“I’m surprised. I got a lot of respect for AC. I think everyone does around the league for what he’s accomplished. You always hate seeing it happen,” Schneider said (via Sportsnet).

Cora finished his Red Sox career with a 620-541 record (.541 winning percentage) over two stints as the team’s manager, including leading them to a World Series championship in 2018.

John Schneider Has Been Pushing the Right Buttons for the Blue Jays

Lately, Schneider has been pushing the right buttons for the Blue Jays. The team has struggled through the first month or so of the season, with just a 12-15 record on the year. But they have won five of their last seven games, and they just won back-to-back series against the Guardians and the Los Angeles Angels. While the Blue Jays have no doubt started cold out of the gate this season, Schneider has been pushing the right buttons lately, and the team is performing much better.

One of the big decisions that Schneider made, in conjunction with Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins, was stripping former closer Jeff Hoffman of his ninth-inning duties. Instead, the Blue Jays will be going with a closer-by-committee approach, with Louis Varland earning two saves for the team this weekend. According to Schneider, it’s still a job that several of his bullpen arms will share, but Varland wanted to take the ball this weekend to close the two games, and the skipper let him have it.

“Louis, he wants the ball. He’s been here long enough and I’ve pitched him enough to understand when he’s good and when he needs a blow. I was hoping he would get it done efficiently today and it was basically that. It’s a lot of pitches back-to-back but he’s shown that he’s pretty resilient,” Schneider said.

Blue Jays Begin Important Series Against Rival Red Sox

The Cora firing happened right before the Blue Jays welcome Boston to Toronto on Monday night for a three-game set. The Blue Jays are currently in fourth place in the AL East, with the Red Sox in fifth place, so this is an important series for both teams to gain some ground on each other in a grinder of a division. For the Blue Jays, they have a chance to win three games and miraculously get back to an even 15-15 record for a .500 winning percentage, while the Red Sox could potentially take three games and overtake the Blue Jays and get out of the AL East basement. It’s still early in the MLB season, but this is going to be a very important series to see what happens.