Jays keep quiet about difficult road to Toronto

From Baltimore, there were images of infield drills. From yankee Stadium, video of a simulated game with starting pitcher J.A. Happ on the mound.

And there was more video from Boston’s Fenway Park, including some Jackie Bradley taking batting practice.

All around Major League Baseball, in fact, the sights and sounds of what the league is calling summer camp were on display over the past couple of days, at least attempting to build excitement for July 23 opening day, as difficult as that has become given the challenges of playing pro sports in a pandemic.

In Toronto, however, it’s been a wall of silence from the Blue Jays.

We’re told from someone involved directly that the Jays have indeed had workouts on Monday and Tuesday — the last team to hit their home stadium since MLB declared camps open for business last Friday.

Whether it’s a deep level of paranoia from the executive offices or a high pile of logistical concerns, next to nothing is known about what’s happened at the Rogers Centre, other than the roof being open.

Transparency is lacking and we’re left to wonder why.

At the top of the list of concerns with the Jays, we surmise, is the desperation the team has in its late push for federal government approval to have the Rogers Centre cleared to play host to the Jays’ 30 home games.

That can’t be an easy sell given the team came from

Florida with a fifth less players than anticipated. Now the front office must convince Ottawa to allow the team to host home games AFTER going to Florida and Washington to start its season.

Furthermore, in the Jays first home stand they are scheduled to face the Philadelphia Phillies, who on Tuesday revealed three players and three coaches tested positive for the virus.

But while other stadiums have been opened to the media this week — allowable under MLB’S health and safety protocol for return to action — the Rogers Centre has remained a closed shop and is expected to be that way until at least Thursday.

This in part can be attributed to some of those logistical concerns we mentioned. Toronto was always playing catchup in this treacherous return to action because of the delayed clearance to have the downtown dome used for training camp. Intake testing had to be done in dunedin but because of the time it took to process the results, the team charter didn’t arrive at Pearson until late Sunday night.

unlike other teams, the Jays didn’t have delays in getting the verdict on testing for players and coaching staff in Florida. Testing on the Toronto-based staff was a different story, however, delays that meant many were unable to access the stadium to help prepare for camp the past few days. Naturally that has forced altering the way they go about their business.

What we do know is somewhere between 45 and 47 players participated in workouts as manager Charlie Montoyo and his staff oversee morning and afternoon sessions. The team has scheduled a conference call with Montoyo for Wednesday that will at least update some of the baseball specific questions.