The Toronto Blue Jays fired general manager J.P Ricciardi on Saturday, ending his eight-year stint as the general manager of the team.

In his eight years as general manager he was unable to help guide the Blue Jays into the playoffs or past the American League East powerhouses of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox or the most recently improved Tampa Bay Rays.

The Jays posted four winning seasons and four losing seasons under Ricciardi with the best season under Ricciardi being 2006 when the Jays finished 87-75.

Interim Blue Jays president Paul Beeston had this to say of the firing:

“This was a tough decision and a difficult one for me personally as I have enjoyed J.P.’s friendship and his perspective on the game,”

“J.P. has put an incredible amount of effort into improving the team and he has brought along a number of great young players,”

“However, I feel that it is time for a change and accordingly we have decided to move on.”

Ricciardi was known for making some very bad calls in this time as general manager which most recently included the opt out clause of AJ Burnett’s contract, which allowed the pitcher to test the free agent market last season and eventual sign with the division rival Yankees.

Letting AJ Burnett opt of his contract was just one of the mistakes Ricciardi made in his tenure.

Ricciardi also signed closer BJ Ryan to a $47 million, five year deal and although effective through parts of two season was released in the middle of 2009.

The $18 million, two year deal given to aging veteran Frank Thomas and the $17 million, three year deal to injury prone Corey Koskie were also poor moves made by Ricciardi as Thomas was released in the beginning of his second season with Toronto and Koskie was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for inefficient reliever Brian Wolfe.

As well as dishing out the $127 million, seven-year deal to Vernon Wells that has been one of the biggest blunders in Jay’s history, Ricciardi also issued the large contract that was given to overrated Alex Rios.

Ricciardi was lucky enough to get out of the Rios contract this August as Riccairdi dealt the struggling Rios and his large contract to the Chicago White Sox for absolutely nothing.

Frank Thomas, another Ricciardi acquisition was a mistake in Toronto.

The biggest negative against Ricciardi was his lack of producing quality talent through the draft in years when teams such as the Tampa Bay Rays, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks did masterful jobs developing through the draft and making playoff appearances a short time later.

Assistant general manager Alex Anthopoulos will assume the role of general manager for the remainder of the season.

The announcement of a new general manager will not be named until the team announces a new permanent team president.

Interim team president Paul Beeston is still on the hunt for an individual to fill this role.

Rumours have it that Beeston has been instructed by Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed to seek a more business minded general manager for the team as opposed to a baseball man similar to that of Ricciardi.

That is not good news as a business minded general manager may be an indication of a complete rebuild of a team that was not expected to strip down until after next season when the majority of Blue Jays players and their contracts expire.

The news of Ricciardi’s firing came a day after speculatory news of a “mutiny” against Toronto manager Cito Gaston was announced by the media.

The news, first reported by Fox Sports senior writer Ken Rosenthal claimed that according to sources, numerous Toronto Blue Jays players were unhappy with Gaston’s managing of the team and did not want the manager to return in 2010.

The article can be viewed here:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/10157294/Sources:-Players-don’t-want-Cito-back-in-’10

The news of Ricciardi’s firing and the supposed “mutiny” against Gaston is just another huge mess of news in a season that started out so well for the Jays, which has included the loss of AJ Burnett to New York, the release of BJ Ryan, the trade of Scott Rolen, the waiver claim of Alex Rios, the trade news of Roy Halladay and so much more.

Quite a season for a team that claimed 2009 would be a boring bridge year to 2010 in which the Jays would be a contender.