The new manager of the Vancouver Canadians isn’t all that new. Earlier this year John Schneider was appointed to the club, which he helmed in 2011 when the C’s won the first of three Northwest League championships.
Except he wasn’t with Vancouver for the win. Schneider missed the last three weeks of the regular season and then the entire post-season because he was needed in New Jersey for a pressing personal matter, a divorce.
This summer, Schneider intends to see the season through from start to finish.
“It’s something that I expected to do last time and am looking forward to this time, hopefully with the same outcome,” he said Wednesday on the phone from his home in Florida.
“I don’t know if I can say it’s unfinished business, but I’m definitely looking forward to 77 games and hopefully the playoffs with this team.”
When he joined the Canadians in 2011, Schneider, now 34, was the youngest manager the club had known. The next season the C’s major league affiliate, the Toronto Blue Jays, shifted Schneider to the Gulf Coast League where he managed the rookies in Dunedin.
In his months with the Canadians, he oversaw the slightly older group of players, primarily ones that had been drafted from college, and he’s looking forward to their relative maturity and experience.
“Being around the older guys was nice,” Schneider said, noting a manager learns with each player that progress happens differently. He comes to know “when to push the gas and when to hit the breaks a little bit.”
The Blue Jays need their prospects to improve and learn the club’s system but also to adjust to the demanding home-and-away schedule of a travelling class-A team, including nine weeks of continuous baseball and the pressure of road, nooner and night games.
“Getting used to playing every day is the challenge,” said Schneider. He arrives in Vancouver at the beginning of June.
Clayton McCullough, the C’s manager for the past two seasons, takes on a role with the Jays minor league operations as the coordinator of instruction and will work with its six teams, including the AAA Buffalo Bisons and class-A Canadians.
Schneider will be joined on the coaching staff by Dave Pano and pitching coach Jeff Ware, the Jays first-round pick in 1991, who replaces Jim Czajkowski as he moves on to the class-AA club in New Hampshire.
The Canadians season begins June 13 with a five-game road series against Salem-Keizer. They C’s first home game is June 18 when they host the Spokane AquaSox.
