After the Canadian government denied approval for the Blue Jays to play games in Toronto this season, the Jays still don’t know where they still be playing just 10 days removed from their first scheduled “home” game, hosting the Nationals on July 29.
To this end, a number of different options are being explored, such as another MLB venue — Pittsburgh’s PNC Park. Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Jays have “looked into playing select home games at PNC Park in 2020.” As noted by Mackey in a follow-up tweet, the Blue Jays and Pirates share only seven conflicting dates for home games, with six of those coming after Sept. 7.
If nothing else, a temporary move to Pittsburgh would give the Jays some time to spend the next six weeks getting another stadium up to MLB standards. For instance, there has been some hint that Buffalo’s Sahlen Field (home of the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate) could undergo the clubhouse, lighting and overall infrastructure upgrades necessary to host MLB games, but nothing has been finalized on that front.
Talking to reporters (including Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi) on Saturday, Blue Jays president/CEO Mark Shapiro was “confident that Buffalo is a viable alternative,” even while noting that a move to Sahlen Field is “not a done deal.” By comparison, the Jays’ spring training facility in Dunedin, Florida is “100 percent seamless right now and ready to go….but from a player-health standpoint has some challenges,” considering Florida’s COVID-19 spike.
Looking at the most recent coronavirus data, Pennsylvania is doing relatively well in managing its COVID-19 cases, although its most severely hit region is Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located. Areas with large population centers will naturally have bigger COVID numbers than less densely populated areas, of course, although it underscores the difficulty faced by the Jays since all adequate MLB-level facilities are in major cities.
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Originally posted on MLB Trade Rumors | By Mark Polishuk | Last updated 7/19/20
