WANTED: STADIUM TO SHARE — AND IN A MAJOR WAY
Blue Jays players, management not keen to play in cramped minor league facilities
These boys want to play in the big leagues and for the suddenly displaced Blue Jays players, that means a big league stadium.
The team is exhausting all options to find an alternate Major League Baseball stadium rather than settling for a minor league park that players and management feel would put the American League team at a competitive disadvantage.
The players made their feelings known to the front office after Ottawa rejected the Jays’ bid to play its 30 games at Rogers Centre. And with the season set to start Friday, management is scrambling to find a suitable home that will help maximize safety concerns and competitive advantages.
“I personally feel our best situation to be in is to be playing in a major league ballpark, and I think that’s where we’re going to thrive and win,” Jays reliever Anthony Bass said on a Zoom call Sunday from Rogers Centre. “That was pretty much echoed in our clubhouse, that we want to be in a major league ballpark, wherever that is.”
The good news for the players is that the Jays’ front office shares the sentiment. It’s why, as of late Sunday, the team was working diligently with MLB to find a shared arrangement with another team.
General manager Ross Atkins was in contact with MLB head office, the players association and other teams, all with the hope that logistics can be satisfied early in the week.
The Jays have Buffalo as their prime fallback, but Sahlen Field, home of their triple-a affiliate Bisons, lacks several of the amenities of a big league stadium. Among the biggest concerns is the crowding in the bowels of the stadium where batting cages, weight rooms and clubhouses are too cramped.
As Bass and a Jays front office source both said, the team would be at a competitive disadvantage being based at such a facility and facing powerhouses such as the New York Yankees, who work and train in first-rate facilities. As the team’s spring home, TD Ballpark in Dunedin has much better amenities than Buffalo, but the front office wants to avoid being based in the COVID-19 hell of Florida at all costs.
Being a shared tenant isn’t an ideal arrangement, of course, but the Jays believe it is better than the alternative. The team would likely want its own clubhouse constructed and would have to defer the use of some amenities to the true home team.
“That’s definitely a disadvantage, but we know as a team we are willing to make some sacrifices to play in a big league ballpark,” Bass said. “To have that atmosphere and that energy from being in a bigger stadium (is a positive), as opposed to being in a stadium that might not have the lighting and their clubhouses might be very small or they might not have enough batting cages for the hitters.”
It’s believed that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and his staff are heavily involved in negotiations. To share a stadium would require some schedule tweaks and co-operation from the other team, which is where the commissioner’s influence could be used.
So what are the possibilities? It isn’t known for sure what ballparks the Jays are considering, but looking at the respective home schedules of the Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates reveals an interesting possibility.
There are seven overlapping home dates between the teams and a minor shuffle of the schedule likely could reduce that to five.
As a team source put it to us on Saturday, the Jays are committed to finding the most viable option “that provides the best circumstances for player safety and competitiveness ... and major league stadiums are certainly among the best fit for those variables.”
The Jays believe that with a hungry young team anchored by ace starter Hyun-jin Ryu, they can take advantage of a 60-game schedule. The ability to compete clearly gets accelerated if the team is comfortable with its work environment.
And it’s not just the Jays who will want to avoid a substandard facility. The team’s 10 opponents in the shortened 60-game schedule wouldn’t be enthused about a return to the minors.
“I bet every team in this division hopes it’s going to be a big league ballpark,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “But if it’s not, they’re going to have no choice.”
Despite the uncertainty, now followed by turmoil, Montoyo believes his players have handled the homelessness well.
“I’m very lucky; I’ve got good kids here,” the second-year manager said. “With all this uncertainty, a lot of things could go the wrong way. We’re fine.
“This team is ready to go and they’re excited. They feel good about themselves. We just want to know where we’re going to play, then we will be good about everything else.”
I personally feel our best situation to be in is to be playing in a major league ballpark, and I think that’s where we’re going to thrive and win.