Blue Jays Will Not Play in Canada During the Regular Season

Baseball is set to return with its shortened 60 game season beginning July 23rd. While the clubs will play home games in their home ballparks (with no fans present), the Toronto Blue Jays will not be playing at the Rogers Centre. In fact, the Jays won’t be playing in Canada at all, at least not in the regular season.

That’s because the Canadian government has ruled that the frequent travels for the club between Toronto and the U.S. represent a health threat to Canadians, due to the widespread and out of control status of Covid-19 in many parts of the U.S. So the Jays have to find an alternate site for their “home games”.

The leading contenders for the Blue Jays’ home away from home are Buffalo, New York, where the Jay’s Triple A farm club is located, and Dunedin, Florida, home of Toronto’s spring training facilities. Dunedin actually has the better infrastructure from a major league standpoint, but Florida’s Covid-19 cases have skyrocketed, so it may not be the best place if player health is an issue, which of course it is. Buffalo needs some lighting and other upgrades to bring the ballpark up to major league standards, but nothing that isn’t doable by the time of the Jays’ home opener on July 29th.

With no minor league baseball this year, the clubs are establishing “player pools” of reserve players that can be called up to the clubs if players are injured or test positive for Covid-19. Essentially, it’s similar to football Taxi Squads. These player pools are generally based at a club’s minor league facility that is the closest to the club’s home city. That was to have been Buffalo for the Jays, but if the western New York city is chosen as the alternate Toronto, they’ll have to put the player pool somewhere else.

As it is, nonessential travel between the U.S. and Canada remains banned until at least August 21st, and baseball would need an exemption from the rule, which Canada was unwilling to grant. Really, can you blame them? The NHL will begin the Stanley Cup playoffs on August 1st, but every team in the playoffs is based in either Toronto or Edmonton for the duration, with no cross border travel; the rest of the NBA season will be held in Orlando, so the Toronto Raptors will be there for as long as they remain in the playoffs.

There is one ray of hope for the Jays playing in Canada this season. The government has advised it will reassess the situation if the Jays make it to the post season.

Here’s some highlights from the last regular season home game for the Jays from 2019, an 8-3 win over Tampa Bay in the last game of the season: