Hours before the start of the 2020 MLB season, there’s still a team unsure which diamond it will call home.
The Canadian government over the weekend denied the Toronto Blue Jays’ request to play at Roger’s Centre, citing the spread of coronavirus as the biggest concern. The state of Pennsylvania followed suit on Wednesday, denying the team’s alternate plan to play home games at PNC Park.
In short order, the Blue Jays have had to scramble to find a home ballpark for the season. The team has its first home game scheduled for July 29 against the Washington Nationals, though the location of that game is currently pending.
The other 29 teams plan to play in their home ballparks, without fans, when the one-of-a-kind season kicks off tonight. Under the new geographically-based schedule, teams will not venture out of their regions. AL East teams will face only each other and NL East teams. Teams in the two central divisions will face only each other. NL West teams will face only each other and AL West teams.
Maintaining the geographic bubble created by this schedule format limits the options available for the MLB and the Blue Jays. Combine that with players’ requests to play in big-league parks, and finding a solution is a monumental task arising at the last minute.
There have been reports that the Blue Jays are in conversations with the Baltimore Orioles about possibly sharing Camden Yards. Maryland governor Larry Hogan talked about the situation with the Associated Press on Thursday.
“We’ve had some discussions with the Orioles. I don’t know the final details of that,” he said, per Rob Gillies, the Chief of Bureau for The Associated Press in Canada. “Obviously, we’re watching our numbers very carefully every day. We’re concerned about the spikes in other states.
Reports suggest that Camden Yards is the favorite to be the setting for the Blue Jays’ home games in 2020.
But The Athletic reports that if the Blue Jays and Orioles both played home games at Camden Yards, the Blue Jays wouldn’t be permitted to use the visiting clubhouse. Instead, they would need to use “a makeshift clubhouse.”