ROBERT MACLEOD September 17, 2008 at 10:27 PM EDT TORONTO — Cito Gaston will be back next season as the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, that much is clear. Whether Paul Godfrey, the club's president and chief executive officer, and general manager J.P. Ricciardi will also remain with the American League club is subject to speculation because of the silence from club owner Rogers Communications. Godfrey has acknowledged he is considering leaving his post when his contract expires in December. Ricciardi, who has become a lightning rod for fan discontent, has, according to several sources, likely had his job saved by the team's late-season rally to respectability and because he has two years left on his contract. Godfrey said yesterday he is not even certain he will return to work for Rogers. "I still have some things to discuss with my family," Godfrey said. "One of my sons is in New York and I'll be doing that [speaking with family] after the season is over. There are a number of things we have to look at." Ricciardi is talking and acting like somebody who will return. "I've got two years left on my deal," Ricciardi said when asked about his future with the Jays. "I come to work every day to honour it. So that's not my decision to make." Godfrey hired Ricciardi seven years ago to turn the moribund franchise into a championship team. The fans are still waiting. This season, one pockmarked with injury woes and inconsistent hitting, will be the seventh consecutive that a Ricciardi team has failed to even get close to a postseason berth. Only a coaching change in June, when Gaston was welcomed back to replace John Gibbons as the manager, turned the Jays around. Gaston instilled a winning attitude and prevented the year from turning into a writeoff. "As I said at the beginning, everybody is going to be evaluated at the end [of the season]," Godfrey said last night when asked about the status of Ricciardi. "J.P. is the one who announced that Cito would be coming back. That should have been done at the end of the season, but that's something that I concur with. So I guess there's nothing more I can say about that one. The Globe
