Montoyo's unique office a tribute to Puerto Rican roots

TORONTO -- When searching for Charlie Montoyo, all you must do is follow the music.

Sounds of salsa and rumba are heard long before entering the Blue Jays manager’s office. The voices of Célia Cruz and Héctor Lavoe blend in with Montoyo’s live percussion, as he jams just feet away from the clubhouse while his team prepares for another game at Rogers Centre.

“I love salsa,” Montoyo said from his office, which he’s transformed into an ode to música Latina. “It’s got nothing to do with baseball, it’s just my passion.”

The space is just like a music studio but with a Blue Jays logo on the wall. Signed posters from his favorite artists have been carefully placed between claves_, _maracas and congas. If it’s a particularly busy meeting, Montoyo will even let you sit on the cajón.

It keeps the Puerto Rico native close to his roots.

“Because I know how difficult it is to get where I am, and how few of us -- Latinos and African Americans -- get to where we are, I’ll always bring Puerto Rico and music with me,” said Montoyo, in a heartwarming brand of Spanglish. “I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but while I am, I’m carrying my flag wherever I go. I’m proud of where I’m from. That’s why I love music.”

Though his days as a bona fide percussionist wouldn’t arrive until his early 20s, Montoyo’s love for music started when he was a kid. His parents never had instruments at home while Montoyo was growing up in Florida, Puerto Rico. But just like in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse today, his childhood home was always filled with music.

The town of Florida was big on rumba, and Montoyo would seize every chance he got to be around it. But it wasn’t until a trip to the Dominican Republic for the Caribbean Series in 1987 that he bought his own pair of congas.

“I always had a good ear for music, but I never had congas at home,” he said. “When I bought those congas in the Dominican, that’s when I started to practice.”

Years later, he’d get into the LPs.

Each of the countless vinyls in his collection has a story. Montoyo’s wife Samantha was the one who gifted him the gramophone that has become a crown jewel of sorts in the manager’s office.

That’s Montoyo’s outlet for playing alongside legends like Gran Combo, Fania All Stars (live at Yankee Stadium, of all places) and Ray Barretto -- the same artists who shaped him as a youngster.

“Whenever I go home [to visit my parents], I bring my good speaker and everyone in the neighborhood knows I’m in town,” said Montoyo, pulling up a WhatsApp conversation filled with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stickers and photos of his parents in Blue Jays jerseys. “I talk to them every day. All the nail-biters that we play? My mom is at home, praying that we’ll win.”

It’s certainly been a challenging stretch for Montoyo’s mother. The Blue Jays have played their fair share of close games a quarter into the 2022 season, their current winning record aided in large part by good pitching as the team’s hitters try to find consistency.

Win or lose, however, Montoyo is always playing his tunes.

“When there’s music, no matter what, [players] know the manager is there, he’s calm and playing,” he said. “If I’m quiet, they feel the pressure. So whatever happens, I’m still the same. It’s not easy, but it helps them. That way, they can say, ‘Well, if the manager is calm, why wouldn’t we be?’”

Blue Jays players certainly seem to appreciate it. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., for example, is constantly introducing Montoyo to musicians from his native Cuba or gifting the skipper with percussion instruments and swag from his favorite groups.

“I like meeting musicians more than I like meeting ballplayers, to be honest,” said Montoyo.

He’s had the opportunity to meet a bunch of those in Toronto, too. The plural Canadian metropolis sports a large Latin community -- one that Montoyo is now proudly part of.

Some nights, you can find him at the Lula Lounge, a venue known for its salsa concerts and Latin dining and dancing on the West side. When the Blue Jays returned to Toronto in 2021 after nearly two years away due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Montoyo invited some of his closest musician friends in the city for a private jam session right there in his office.

Montoyo and four other musicians -- a trombonist, piano player, another percussionist and a bassist -- marked his homecoming in style.

“I’ve been away from Puerto Rico for a long time,” Montoyo said. “It’s not that I don’t miss it, but when I bring music with me wherever I go, I also feel at home wherever I go.

“In Arizona [where I live in the offseason], no one really knows I’m a big league manager or any of that. They only know I’m there cuando la música empieza.”