Here are eight storylines to watch as the 2021 Major League Baseball season gets underway Thursday:
• When will the Toronto Blue Jays return to Buffalo? The bet remains either June 1 against the Marlins or June 15 against the Yankees. The Jays announced Tuesday the homestand from May 14-24 (Philadelphia, Boston, Tampa Bay) will stay in Dunedin, Fla., and no decisions have been made about home games after that.
• Local connections: Amherst's Jonah Heim will start the season as the backup catcher in Texas after an offseason trade from Oakland, while former University at Buffalo star Tom Murphy will be the starter in Seattle. Heim got his first MLB hit last season for the Athletics in Texas' Globe Life Park. Murphy missed all of last season with a foot injury, but clubbed 18 homers in 2019. Both could get a chance to play in Buffalo against the Blue Jays as the Mariners visit the Jays on June 29-30 and July 1, while the Rangers visit July 16-18.
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• Will the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres both win 100 games? And how good will their 19-game series be in the National League West? In the divisional era, a second-place team has only won 100 games six times, with the most recent coming in 2018. The Yankees won 100 games and finished behind the 108-win Red Sox.
• Speaking of the Padres, can Fernando Tatis Jr. become the marketing icon for the game, a role that Mike Trout has seemingly never embraced? A winning club pushing the Dodgers in the NL West helps, and so does Tatis' immense talent and magnetic personality. At just 22, he's already the youngest cover player ever for the MLB The Show video game series.
• The Chicago White Sox hired Tony LaRussa, 76, as their manager, a whim of owner and close friend Jerry Reinsdorf that seems like a bad mix with today's young, modern players. At 27, shortstop Tim Anderson's bat-flipping, jaw-flapping style is a hit with fans and the Sox are expected to contend. Anderson said during the spring that he's cool with LaRussa. But will that feeling last?
• This has to be the year the Aaron Judge-Giancarlo Stanton Yankees break through and make the World Series, right? Right? How fast will those 3,300 tickets go if the Bombers return to Sahlen Field to meet the Blue Jays?
• How good will the Mets be this year with shortstop Francisco Lindor, especially since new owner Steve Cohen worked out a 10-year extension with him for more than $340 million?
• Speaking of Lindor, the Indians never won another postseason series with him after getting to the iconic Game 7 of the 2016 World Series against the Cubs. In what could be the first losing summer in Cleveland since Terry Francona arrived in 2013, fans will be saying good-bye to the beloved "Indians" moniker. Let's see if we get word the club will be known as the "Spiders" or "Rockers" in 2022.
