The Toronto Blue Jays continue their search for a home stadium for the 2020 season. After their requests to play at their home stadium (Rogers Center) and PNC Park in Pittsburgh were rejected, the team is now exploring the Camden sharing option. Yards with the Baltimore Orioles, according to a report by The Athletic. Major League Baseball appears to be willing to solve any logistical problem, but the challenge now is whether local health and government officials will give final approval for the plan.
On Thursday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan spoke to the Associated Press about the possibility of allowing the Blue Jays to organize games at Camden Yards: “We have had some discussions with the Orioles. I don’t know the final details of that. Obviously we looked at our numbers. very carefully every day. We are concerned about spikes in other states. “
The Blue Jays will begin their 2020 season on Friday at Tropicana Field to face the Tampa Bay Rays. Toronto’s first “home” game is scheduled for July 29, though those two games are expected to be played at Nationals Park, according to The Athletic. It would be a four game slate in DC, with two games as the visiting club and two as the “home” club. After that, the next home game scheduled for the Blue Jays is July 31 against the Phillies. In the league’s new geographic timeline for this season, teams will not venture outside of their “regions” in an effort to contain additional exposure to COVID-19.
As for the Blue Jays and Orioles’ local calendar, the two AL East clubs share eight overlapping scheduled local games. But for the month of September, the Blue Jays and Orioles will never play at home at the same time. They are slated to be played 10 times this season, with six games scheduled with the Blue Jays as the “home team” (Aug. 29-31, Sept. 25-27).
Camden Yards is also closer than PNC Park would have been, and easily accessible to / from the other cities (New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC) that the Blue Jays will have to travel to this season.
Each MLB team will play 40 of their 60 games against opponents from their own division, so the Blue Jays and Pirates will play 10 games against their rivals AL East and NL Central, respectively. Then the remaining 20 games will be those of the corresponding geographic division of the opposing league, which means AL East will face NL East; NL Central will face AL Central. The 2020 MLB postseason will maintain its 10-team format, with two Wild Card teams from each league.
The Blue Jays had initially considered playing their home games at their Triple-A affiliate stadium in Buffalo, New York and at their spring training stadium in Dunedin, Florida. However, there were concerns about the stadium adjustments that would be necessary in the ongoing increase of Buffalo and Florida’s COVID-19 for their spring training site, as well as for the Blue Jays players who expressed a desire to play in a Major League Baseball Stadium.
