Toronto ? Buck Martinez, who was hired as manager of the Toronto Blue Jays without any coaching experience on the minor or major league level, was fired Monday in his second season.

The Blue Jays, off to their worst start in two decades, made third base coach Carlos Tosca the manager for the rest of the season.

Toronto general manager J.P. Ricciardi said Martinez, who went to the Blue Jays bench before last season directly from the broadcast booth, was fired because of his lack of experience and leadership.

“I don’t know if Buck even knows what his philosophy or style is because he hasn’t had a lot of time to manage,” Ricciardi said. “It’s not so much the wins, the losses at this point, it’s more the leadership.”

First base coach Garth Iorg was also fired. Bullpen catcher John Gibbons takes over for Iorg while Brian Butterfield, fired May 16 as manager of New York’s Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, joins the Blue Jays as third base coach.

Martinez becomes the fifth manager fired since opening day. Detroit fired Phil Garner, Colorado replaced Buddy Bell, Kansas City dismissed Tony Muser and Milwaukee fired Davey Lopes.

The Blue Jays, third worst in the American League with a 20-33 record, swept a three-game weekend series with Detroit but that didn’t stop Ricciardi from replacing Martinez.

Martinez’s fate has been questioned since spring training when Ricciardi, who replaced the fired Gord Ash in the offseason, issued an ultimatum for Martinez to produce a hardworking team. Ricciardi said the team quit halfway through last season and if things went as they did last year a change would be made.

After the Blue Jays dropped to 8-20 at home following a 0-6 stand at SkyDome last week, Ricciardi said Martinez’s status would be monitored.

“I don’t think he was surprised. He understood something was maybe coming,” Ricciardi said.

Martinez had a year remaining on the three-year deal he signed in November 2000 after leaving the broadcast booth.

Tosca, who was hired by Ricciardi in the offseason, has managed 1,759 games in the minors. He managed Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate in Richmond in 2001 and spent the three previous years as bench coach of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has been a minor league manager with the New York Yankees and the Florida Marlins.

Tosca held a team meeting after being hired. He said he would meet with each player this week.

“It’s a clubhouse that needs to have some leadership come forward,” Tosca said.