Blue Jays expect to play in Florida, Buffalo and Toronto

The Blue Jays expect to split the home portion of this year’s regular-schedule among their spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida, their Triple-A ballpark in Buffalo, New York, and the Rogers Center in Toronto.

Toronto announced Thursday it will play the first two homestands of the season in Dunedin because of Canadian government restrictions during the pandemic.

Team president Mark Shapiro said a return to Buffalo is a likely option in June because of the heat and humidity in Florida. He hopes for games in Toronto at some point during the summer.

“The alternatives for our season lie with some combination of Dunedin, Buffalo and Toronto,” Shapiro said.

The Blue Jays played home games during the shortened 2020 season in Buffalo and were 17-9 at Sahlen Field, home of their Buffalo Bisons Triple-A farm team. The Canadian government didn’t allow the team to play at home because of the risk of spreading COVID-19, citing frequent travel required in the U.S. during a baseball season

Shapiro said he didn’t ask the Canadian government to start the season in Toronto because public

health has not yet improved sufficiently and the border remains closed to non essential travel.

After starting the season with three-game series at the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers, Toronto’s schedule has a homestand with four games against the Los Angeles Angels from April 8-11 and the Yankees from April 12-14.

The Blue Jays follow with a trip to Kansas City, Boston and Tampa Bay, then have home games against Washington on April 27-28 and Atlanta from April 30 to May 2. That is followed by a 10game trip to Oakland, Houston and Atlanta.

It remains unlikely they would gain approval to play May games in Toronto. A return home in the second half may be more realistic, after players and large segments of the population in the U.S. and Canada are vaccinated.

The TD Ballpark in Dunedin seats about 8,500 fans and had a major renovation in 2019-20. The Blue Jays intend to limit capacity to 15%.

Toronto last played at 49,000-capacity Rogers Centre on Sept. 29, 2019, an 8-3 win over Tampa Bay.

“That’s where we want to be,” Shapiro said. “That’s just not a realistic possibility right now with the circumstances being what they are and with the border being closed,”