Without a hub-city approach, Jays face challenge to play in Toronto

TORONTO — With Major League Baseball not currently proposing a hub-city model for a potential 2020 season, the Toronto Blue Jays may be forced to find a venue outside Canada to play home games.

When asked about the Blue Jays training or playing games in Toronto during the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s chief public health officer did not raise the possibility of waiving quarantine rules.

“When (the players) come back to training, they are subjected to the 14 days of quarantine . ... As the teams coalesce and come together, there are the concepts of cohorting and group quarantine whereby the players have to remain together and pose no risk to themselves or surrounding population, so that’s the concept,” Dr. Theresa Tam said.

Canada has waived the 14-day quarantine for Vancouver, Edmonton or Toronto being a potential National Hockey League hub city, agreeing to a cohort quarantine where teams stay in an essential bubble during the Stanley Cup tournament.

With teams entering and exiting Canada regularly during a potential 60-game baseball season without fans, the NHL approach would be impossible to duplicate.

Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, said he has not received a specific proposal for games in Canada from MLB. “The Major League Baseball proposal (for a season), I’ve seen it and read it, it deals with a lot of aspects there,” he said.

“It doesn’t mention anything about travel to Canada at this time, so, if there was some interest in that, we’d have to get a proposal from them to see how they would undertake the uniqueness of bringing the team, and if they’ve thought about bringing other teams up into here to play how they would work with that up until such time as the federal government reduces or eliminates their quarantine law, but that’s still in place at this time,” Williams added.

“We have ways that we’ve worked with the NHL to consider that. I have not seen anything specific yet with Major League Baseball at this time.”

Dunedin, Fla., the Blue Jays’ spring-training home, and Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, both have been mentioned as potential home venues for Canada’s lone major-league team in reports.

The Blue Jays did not immediately respond for comment.

MLB asked the union to respond by 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday as to whether players can report to training by July 1 and whether the players association will agree on the operating manual of health and safety protocols. Given the need for three days of virus testing and 21 days of workouts, opening day likely would be during the final week of July.

The Blue Jays have not said whether they will train in Toronto or elsewhere.

The Toronto Raptors, Canada’s lone National Basketball Association team, are in Fort Myers, Fla., to resume training ahead of the league’s restart in Orlando next month.