Blue Jays’ Hillenbrand: Talks Smack, Sits in Time Out, Gets Cut

By Mark Hoerrner

It was a fast and decisive move by Toronto Blue Jays management: Shea Hillenbrand is little more than a memory and the front office seems to have little remorse.

"It will do wonders for the clubhouse," said team manager John Gibbons.

Hillenbrand had just returned to the team after a four-day absence to affect the adoption of baby girl. For the second game in a row, he was not placed in the starting lineup. Prior to Wednesday night’s team meeting, Hillenbrand had been criticizing the front office management techniques and voicing his expectations on being traded.

The Toronto Star reported that Gibbons publicly chastised Hillenbrand during a short meeting prior to last night’s game. Witnesses at the meeting say Gibbons went so far as to challenge Hillenbrand to a fistfight.

"The guy was calling me horrible names, to try to get me to punch him, to fight him,'' Hillenbrand told the Star late last night. "He was in my face for five minutes straight wanting me to punch him.''

Whatever the case, Hillenbrand was designated for assignment mid-game which means that he’ll be removed from the active roles and Toronto will have 10 days to trade him, release him or send him to the minor leagues.

The stormy incident comes on the heels of two months of frosty feelings between Hillenbrand and Gibbons.

"He was claiming that I'm a cancer to my teammates, that I'm a coward,'' Hillenbrand said in the Star. "He said that my teammates were all laughing at me and that they think I'm a joke."

"He said he was washing his hands of me right then and there and that he was done with me,'' he said. "He said he didn't want anything more to do with me but have me show up and win ballgames for him.''

Hillenbrand and his wife had opted to adopt, but figured that because their application was recent, it would be some time before a baby was matched to them. They found out late last week that a birth mother had been selected and that they needed to come and receive the child. Hillenbrand apparently opted to omit this information from conversations with the front office prior to leaving on the trip, but was dismayed that management had not commented on the birth by the time he had returned and the birth was in the news.

"I had a manager telling me he was washing his hands of me,'' Hillenbrand told the star. "If he won't talk to me, why should I tell him anything?''

Hillenbrand claims that he had "100 percent" approval from the team’s General Manager J.P. Ricciardi. He was expected to be back for Monday night’s game, but had to stay an extra day because of paperwork issues related to the adoption.

The Hillenbrand incident, while obviously a story in which both sides are not giving out all the facts, may be an indication of a sea change in the way Toronto is looking at its roster. In the past, athletes were lured to the franchise based on a cohesive family atmosphere, but if the absence of any personal information about the players in the team media guide is a telling factor, those may be by-gone days.

Hillenbrand, after a dismal summer, rose to be one of the top 10 league hitters with a .301 average and 12 homers. His fate now uncertain, the possibility of a trade to the Los Angeles Angels may be his next move.