Blue Jays to open home slate in Dunedin

TORONTO — The Blue Jays will call TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla., home to open the 2021 regular season, the club announced Thursday, marking the second consecutive season that Toronto will begin the year away from Rogers Centre.

Under the current plan, the Blue Jays will use TD Ballpark, their familiar Spring Training home, for the first two homesteads of the season, taking them through to May 2. At that point, the club will reevaluate, with the goal of returning to Rogers Centre when they are cleared to do so.

“Like all Canadians, we had hoped to see improvements in the public health outlook as we neared the baseball season,” the team said in a news release. “With the ongoing Canada-US border closure, the Blue Jays have made the difficult decision to play the first two homestands of the 2021 regular season at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla., with the hopes of a return to play at Rogers Centre as soon as possible.”

The opening homestands — now scheduled for TD Ballpark — will see the Blue Jays host the Angels (April 8-11), Rangers (April 12-14), Nationals (April 27-28) and Braves (April 30-May 2). Following that Braves series, the Blue Jays head back out on the road and don’t return home until May 14.

Last summer, the Blue Jays opened their season at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field, home of their Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons. The Canadian federal government did not grant permission for the Blue Jays to play their home games in Toronto, and while a variety of options were explored — including sharing Major League parks with other clubs — the Buffalo setup worked well for the Blue Jays, given the circumstances.

In the province of Ontario, COVID-19 numbers are well above where they were through last June and July, but hope remains that the vaccination process will ramp up over the summer and make the club’s return home possible. There are many variables at play here, of course, most notably the difficulty of projecting the course of the ongoing pandemic, but the Blue Jays should have a clearer picture by their reevaluation date on May 2.

For hitters, this should be welcome news. TD Ballpark has always been friendly to those who can lift the ball, especially with the short porch in right field, where the Blue Jays’ bullpen and clubhouse sit. Home runs hit in Spring Training games don’t just leave the stadium, they often leave the property altogether, so you can expect some offensive fireworks early.