After what has seemed like a forever process, the Toronto Blue Jays have finally found a place to call home for the 2020 season.
Following the ousting from Canada and two state government rejections, the Blue Jays will play their 2020 home games at Sahlen Field in Buffalo. Sahlen Field is the home of Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate the Buffalo Bisons. Immediately following the word that the team wouldn’t play at Rogers Centre, the organization looked at their spring training facility in Dunedin Florida.
With rising cases of COVID-19, not to mention just 8,500 seats in the stadium, the plan was to steer away from that location. The Blue Jays made a rushed attempt to share PNC Park with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania health officials shot that deal down. From there the team set their sites on the possibility of playing within the confines of Camden Yards in Baltimore. The thought to share Camden Yards with the Orioles had some headway. Unfortunately, once again rising COVID-19 levels struck that down. Maryland health officials decided that the Blue Jays in Baltimore just wasn’t a good idea after all.
Just because they found a home, doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods. The first scheduled home series for the team against Washington does not appear as though it will take place in Buffalo. Instead, the series will likely take place in D.C. There are several upgrades that must be made to the stadium itself. Such improvements include the lighting that must be brought up to Major League standards. The stadium as well must be brought up to be COVID-19 compliant.
There is a thought that the series against the Philadelphia Phillies July 29-August 2 will take place in Buffalo. What is most assured is that the team will play the five-game series against the Miami Marlins in Buffalo.
To have the Edge or Not
There are several ups and downs to playing in Buffalo for the Blue Jays. An upside is that the location is close to their normal home fan base. Three of their primary infield stars in Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, and Vladimir Guerrero have a lot of familiarities there. All three individuals hit over .300 during home games in their last significant respective stints with the Bison. In 2018, Guerrero slugged .741 with five home runs and 12 RBI at Sahlen Field. Biggio’s 2019 minor league stint included a .333 average with 16 RBI and 12 extra-base hits in Buffalo. Bichette had similar success with 15 RBI and a trio of home runs during Bison home games.
There were several people pushing for the use of Buffalo including New York senator Charles Schumer. The Buffalo location already had a staff in place. The hope was to use a big-league facility but with time running out, the Blue Jays are just happy to have a home base of operations for 2020.
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