The Pittsburgh Blue Jays were fun while they lasted. Displaced from Toronto amid the coronavirus pandemic, MLB’s lone Canadian representative appeared to have settled on the Steel City as its home for 2020. However, ESPN’s Buster Olney cautioned Wednesday the Jays’ temporary relocation to PNC Park could be in danger of falling through. And that’s exactly what happened.
We knew the Blue Jays’ plan to stage games in Pittsburgh was on life support when news trickled out that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf had yet to sign off on MLB’s proposal with Opening Day just 24 hours away. In the end, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine felt the risk of hosting Toronto far outweighed the reward.
Already barred from their home field by the Canadian government (our neighbors to the north showed they aren’t messing around when it comes to COVID), Wednesday’s rejection leaves the Blue Jays scrambling to find a park to accommodate them with only a week until their home opener against the Nationals on July 29. The Jays, who are playing an exhibition game in Boston Wednesday night, begin the year with a three-game set in Tampa followed by a home-and-home with Washington. The Nationals are slated to host the first two games of that series, but after that, it gets complicated.
The Jays had previously balked at playing home games in Buffalo (site of their Triple-A affiliate) and had similar concerns setting up shop at their spring training facility in Dunedin. Despite Buffalo’s convenience (it’s a straight shot down I-90), the facilities offered at Sahlen Field aren’t exactly major-league quality. The team’s spring training home is better equipped in that regard, but Florida’s emergence as a coronavirus hot spot makes playing there a risky proposition.
Could other suitors emerge like Baltimore (an option suggested by ESPN’s Jeff Passan), Charlotte or even my beloved Hartford (you laugh but the Insurance Capital has a brand-new park and is closer to the Blue Jays’ divisional opponents than Pittsburgh and Toronto)? One would certainly hope so, though according to Olney, the Jays’ have also considered biting the bullet by adopting permanent road status for 2020.
We knew this would be an unusual year in MLB. We just didn’t know the chaos would start this soon with one of the league’s flagship franchises begging for a place to stay on the eve of Opening Day.
LISTEN NOW on the RADIO.COM App
Follow RADIO.COM Sports
Twitter | Facebook I Instagram