On July 28th, the day that the Blue Jays acquired Troy Tulowitkzi and LaTroy Hawkins, they had a record of 50-51, and were eight games behind the Yankees for first place. Since then, Anthopoulos added David Price, Mark Lowe, Ben Revere, and watched his team go 24-5. Despite his success this year, Blue Jays ownership chose to hire Mark Shapiro to fill the role of president, who Anthopoulos will now directly report to.
While Paul Beeston was his boss, according to Ken Rosenthal, Anthopoulos was largely left to his own devices.
"Shapiro will likely want to create more structure, more systematic decision-making. Under Beeston, Anthopoulos operated in a more free-wheeling environment. So, an adjustment is inevitable...The guess here is that Anthopoulos [will] be open to Shapiro's influence, and will even welcome it."
The Blue Jays will apparently operate in a more controlled manner, and try to strike a balance between the "now and the future." Fortunately for Toronto, nobody is expecting this new chain of command to be a problem, and that they'll be able to re-sign Anthopoulos once his contract expires at the end of the season.
He turned the Blue Jays into a juggernaut, and is on the cusp of leading the team to their first playoff berth since 1993. Anthopoulos revitalized baseball in Toronto, and they'd be foolish to let him go.