The Toronto Blue Jays are heading to the ‘Burgh.
The Blue Jays have been informed that they will play their 2020 local calendar at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, a source told Hazel Mae of Sportsnet.
They will share the stadium with the Pirates, who play their 60-game schedule in the central MLB region.
It is still unclear how many home games the Blue Jays will play in Steel City. While the Pirates agreed to share PNC Park, the Blue Jays still need to get final approvals from the local and state levels before it’s official, according to Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi.
The Blue Jays were made homeless after the Canadian government rejected their request to play at home at the Rogers Center this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian Quarantine Act requires that all travelers entering the country be isolated for 14 days; Both the Blue Jays and the visiting teams would have been subject to those rules. The Canada-United States border remains closed to most travelers.
The decision to share PNC Park may have been helped by various connections between the two teams. Pirates general manager Ben Cherington spent the past several years in the Blue Jays’ main office and was involved in discussions between the parties.
“The reality is that we need the Blue Jays to play so we can all play,” Cherington said Thursday, according to Chris Adamski of TribLive.com. “It’s a league full of 30 teams, and we need 30 teams to start the season. So now, we have a problem. We have a problem that we need to solve, and that is helping the Blue Jays find a place to play. We just hope to be part of that solution. “
An advantage to Pittsburgh as a location is that it would likely allow the Blue Jays to keep their taxi squad a few hours away in Buffalo. Also, there are only seven overlapping dates in the Blue Jays and Pirates’ home schedules, according to Davidi.
Buffalo’s Sahlen Field, home of Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate, was also considered, but players balked at the possibility of using a minor league park. Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards was also released as a potential home.
Toronto opens its local calendar in 2020 on July 29 against the Washington Nationals. The Pirates are also slated to play at home that night against the Milwaukee Brewers.
