John Schneider isn't ignoring the criticism, he's just made peace with tuning most of it out.
Asked directly on The Fan 590 Friday afternoon about the heat he's taking for how this Toronto Blue Jays season has gone, Schneider didn't dodge the question.
"Coming off the year we had, it makes everything that much louder this year, we've earned those expectations, and fans expect them to be met," Schneider said.
That's a real acknowledgment of where the standards sit after last year's World Series run, even with Toronto now sitting at 47-56, last in the American League East.
Schneider then leaned into a piece of advice that's clearly shaped how he handles outside noise.
"Someone gave me advice once, you have to really care about the people in the building with you every day, but not about the people that are not," Schneider said. "I care about you two, but not about the public."
He didn't stop there either.
Why Schneider says the noise doesn't reach him
"There's so many people that have a computer, or a phone, or a microphone, that think they know what's going on, and they don't," Schneider said. "You learn to shrug it off, the noise."
His closing point was the most direct.
"I know that people who are taking shots at me, they can't do what I do, and they can't do what my players can do," Schneider said.
That's a manager drawing a hard line between outside commentary and the actual work happening inside his clubhouse, a defense mechanism plenty of coaches across sports lean on during rough stretches.
Toronto has gone 3-7 over its last 10 games despite Friday's win, a stretch that's made the criticism Schneider is describing considerably louder.
It's a bit like a chef ignoring reviews from people who've never worked a real kitchen shift, confident the actual work speaks for itself regardless of outside noise.
Does dismissing outside criticism this directly reflect real conviction in his approach, or does it risk sounding out of touch during a season this disappointing for the fan base watching it unfold?
Toronto heads to Boston next, another chance for results to do the talking Schneider clearly believes matters more than any outside commentary ever could.
Do you agree with John Schneider that outside criticism of his job doesn't matter?
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