Three Up!: The 2022 season begins!
A dose of pre-game thoughts as a new season of Toronto Blue Jays baseball kicks off
Opening Day! The Blue Jays are genuine contenders here in the year of our lord (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) 2022, and today, as I make my way masked-up on the GO train toward the Rogers Centre, I figured a good use of my time would be a quick piece in anticipation of what should be — win or lose — a truly special Opening Day. (Plus I’m thinking I won’t be in any shape to write about the game afterwards.)
So let’s talk about it!
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The Blue Jays and the Rangers are playing a game on Friday evening, and for the first time since the Jays swept the Orioles back in early October to keep their slim, and ultimately futile, playoff hopes alive (thanks, Nationals!), it will actually count in the standings for them. And for the first time in over 1,100 days — since September 2019 — they will be able to play in front of a capacity crowd at Rogers Centre. It should be magical. Even in the moments when it’s not. Here’s a pre-game three up!
Up: Returning to a full ballpark
A sixth wave? What sixth wave? The Jays have returned to full capacity baseball, and while a province that was run by people who gave a tenth of a shit about public health as they do about ensuring Wal-Mart and the Westons keep raking in billions might not have allowed that to happen giving the next giant mess that’s headed our way, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t thrilled to be heading there for what should be the best atmosphere at a Jays game since probably the 2016 ALCS. That’s a long-ass time! And it’s been quite a journey to get here — personally and professionally for me, but, more importantly, for the team. The “Shatkins” days are over and, while some may disagree, I think it’s safe to say the Cleveland crew won. The Blue Jays are a legitimate contender — and they got here much quicker than was feared when Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins began to really reorganize things back around the end of 2017.
Yes, we learned the hard way in 2013 that hype doesn’t mean everything in this sport, if we can’t get overly excited for this team and this moment right now, what are we even doing here?
Seeing all the Jays jerseys and paraphernalia on the bus, on the train, and — I’m sure — all over the city is pretty danged cool. Let’s f’n goooo!
Up: That lineup!
Superstars — legitimate MVP candidates — in spots one, two, three? A 2021 All-Star and a guy who, when he’s hot, is as good as anyone at four and five? Alejandro Kirk, whose bat the Jays clearly love despite some pedestrian-looking surface results last season, hitting sixth? Ahead of Matt Chapman, who was worth 3.4 WAR as a league average hitter in 2021, but if healthier is capable of producing more than six? Danny Jansen, who finally teased a long-anticipated offensive breakout with an 18-game, 181 wRC+ burst in September, hitting eighth? Cavan Biggio, normally an on-base machine, setting the table for the top of the order hitting ninth?
José Berríos, a four-WAR innings-eating workhorse, taking the ball, with Kevin Gausman, Hyun Jim Ryu, Alek Manoah, and Yusei Kikuchi lined up behind him?
Yes, please!
Up: Getting to see the new scoreboard and other ‘Dome improvements
This one obviously comes third here on our list, because it’s just a video board, and the bigger and better improvements to the experience at the Rogers Centre will come in the next couple of offseasons. But that’s a pretty damn big video board! As the kind of rube who was once impressed by the flaming name of B.J. Ryan adorning the outfield walls as the former closer sprinted in from the bullpen to Slipknot, I think this new setup is really going to be something.
Arden Zwelling has a great piece on all the stadium improvements up at Sportsnet, and there are certainly some new bells and whistles to take in — not just the “JumboTron” but a whole new set of cleaner-glowing LED lights, and a colour changing light system that will create dramatic light shows throughout the building.
Paul Zuschlag, the building’s senior manager of facility maintenance, tells Arden it’s the latter feature that’s really impressed him.
“I’m most excited, honestly, about the color-changing lights," Zuschlag says. "It's a really unique feature that no one else in MLB has had before. We're really excited about it.”
How successful it is will depend on how it’s used, obviously. And it likely won’t make much of a difference to those who will be watching at home. But seeing the building transform back into something modern is never a bad thing!
Other notes
• Obviously a big part of this one will be the return of Marcus Semien, who signed a massive pre-lockout contract with the Texas Rangers. Hopefully the Jays did a good enough job putting together their 2022 roster that there will be no ill will coming from any fans in the stands when he is announced.
Hard not to root for this guy!
• On Thursday, the Jays made a surprising but potentially impactful trade, sending Buffalo-bound reliever Anthony Castro to Cleveland in exchange for outfielder Bradley Zimmer. There is a lot of swing-and-miss in Zimmer’s game (and enough time has probably elapsed for the 2014 draft pick or Mark Shapiro and crew to think that’s not going to change much), but he’s an elite glove in centre, hits from the left side, provides genuine speed (15 SB in 18 tries in 2021), and can play the other outfield positions as well. He hits the ball reasonably hard, too, though that hasn’t exactly produced top notch results for him.
Still, he produced a wRC+ of 89 in 2021, which looks pretty good compared to Ramel Tapia’s 76 mark. And Zimmer’s glove looks better, too. Meaning we’ll probably see him take a bunch of the at-bats we’d sort of penciled in for Tapia — particularly, spelling George Springer in centre.
• Speaking of Springer, if that game — and pre-game — didn’t get you hyped for the season, you can still do so by giving a read to his piece for the Players’ Tribune.
• Also definitely worth your time, though it may not get your blood pumping quite the same, is Shi Davidi’s essay on payroll and big picture questions for the Jays going forward. A phrase from Mark Shapiro like, “If we get back to levels we were at in '15 and '16, we will be fine to sustain or even grow our payroll. If we do not, we will probably have to reconsider our roster,” is maybe not ideal fodder for a day like this, but the piece is great.
• Some interesting scheduling changes for the Jays were announced this week, as MLB announced a new deal with NBC’s Peacock streaming service, which will see the league grant US exclusivity (I think!) to the little-used provider for Sunday morning games starting at noon, for a window lasting until 1:30 PM ET. This bumps the first pitch of all of the Jays’ home Sunday starts up to 1:37 PM ET, and all their Eastern Time Zone Sunday starts to around that time as well, with the exception of the three Peacock games they’re involved in: July 17 vs. Kansas City (12:05 PM ET), July 31 vs. Detroit (12:05 PM ET), and September 4 @ Pittsburgh (12:05 PM ET).
Because Peacock is not available in Canada, Sportsnet will still carry the games in Canada.
Parceling off the games like this — making them difficult for loyal fans to find — seems like an awful way to grow the sport, or even to just maintain the audience it already has, but clearly MLB is happy to take the money and run.
• Lastly, because complaining about MLB is not the note I want to end on… let’s do this!!!
Next up: Saturday, 3:07 PM ET: Jays vs. Rangers (Kevin Gausman vs. Dane Dunning), TV: Sportsnet, Sportsnet 590
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Stoeten I know I am still riding the high of last night, but maybe potential MVP candidates at 1,2,3 AND 4? Nice write up! Hope you had a blast last night. Can’t wait to have you write about it!
Still riding the absolute boycott of MLB, Rogers, and any other usurious broadcasting network. Get out there and grab all the streaming plunder y'all.
What a game! We goofed up just about everything and were still awesome. Cimber gives up a homer. Bo picked off. Berrios can't hardly get two outs! No matter, we win anyway! Wooooo.