The Toronto Blue Jays are planning to play next season in Rogers Centre, and that's what they're telling their players and potential free agents when the topic is broached.
But in the world of Covid-19 and closed international borders, nothing is certain. And the Blue Jays know the possibility is open they could again be looking for a place to play.
"I'm a glass half-full person and I'm optimistic we'll be in Toronto," General Manager Ross Atkins said Monday on a video call marking the start of MLB's annual GM meetings, which are taking place virtually this year. "Obviously it is not within our control, so we have to plan accordingly for an alternative. That's what we're doing."
The great Sahlen Field experiment has produced a result only the most optimistic fans north of the border could have envisioned.
The Blue Jays, of course, played their entire 26-game home schedule for 2020 in Buffalo at Sahlen Field after they could not get government approval to play in Toronto and failed to reach an agreement to play in major-league facilities such as Pittsburgh's PNC Park or Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The club worked with MLB on a multimillion-dollar upgrade of its Triple-A ballpark, getting it ready in less than three weeks, and eventually clinched its first postseason berth since 2016 here with a win over the New York Yankees on Sept. 24. The team was 17-9 in Buffalo.
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With the Canadian border still shut down and no timeline for getting it open, the Jays are again left pondering a different home. It would seem that their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., would be the most likely spot in 2021 now that the club's new training complex was completed over the summer and because Florida officials are letting fans into professional sports stadiums.
While much of the work in Sahlen Field has been taken down, some of it remains on the stadium service level on the off chance Buffalo comes into play again. Minor-league baseball is a question mark in 2021 as well, until a time when the pandemic allows fans back into stadiums.
Atkins said the homefield question comes up and the team is forthright with its response.
"That's what we tell our players and answer any questions to the best of our ability about what that could look like, what that may be," he said. "You guys can fill in the blanks from that. It gets back to the way we're thinking. We're planning to be here (in Toronto) but obviously understand we're not in control of that and have to plan for an alternative as well."
