Toronto Blue Jays’ schedule presents difficult path to playoffs
With MLB releasing the 2020 schedule, the Toronto Blue Jays path to compete for the playoffs will most likely be a difficult one.
The Toronto Blue Jays have arrived at Rogers Centre for spring training and while we don’t know whether they will remain there when the season begins we now know who they will play this season.
MLB released the 60-game schedule for each team this season and let’s just say the Blue Jays will have their work cut out for them in 2020. The AL East has always been a challenging division and unfortunately, the margin of error for Toronto is pretty small.
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Not only do the Blue Jays open up their season at Tropicana Field where they have had their fair share of struggles but they move on to take on the World Series champions right after that. If you think the team gets any relief for a potential final push… think again as they close out the regular season with 10 of their final 19 games against the New York Yankees.
It’s fair to say that if the team wants to make the post-season, they will have to earn it. The challenges of playing a condensed season will also take its toll when you consider the run of games that will be played without rest to go along with the travel.
As Keegan Matheson of MLB.com notes, the Blue Jays will play games on 20 consecutive days. The real trick is figuring out whether the travel for home games will be to Toronto or Dunedin. Right now, it seems like it will be a challenge to get the Canadian government to sign off on playing in Toronto considering the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States but the team also has the opportunity to keep a pretty isolated bubble in Rogers Centre.
"“While no final decision has been made on a site for Blue Jays regular-season home games, the club’s preference remains Rogers Centre,” the team said in a press release. “The team continues to pursue this option with the health and safety of the general public and the team at the forefront, and will communicate an update as information becomes available.”"
This decision will likely come soon but at this point, the Blue Jays have quite a few challenges they’ll have to contend with. Fortunately, the team’s pitching depth shouldn’t be as much of a concern as it was in years past.
Where the real challenge is going to come is the outfield where the talent level and potential doesn’t really match the rest of the roster. Once we see how Charlie Montoyo plans to deploy the team this season, it will give us a better sense of the depth and options the team can work with.
For now, the schedule release is certainly exciting because we can start to mark in our calendars some baseball games to watch. There is still work to be done and nothing will be handed to the Blue Jays but everything they get will be earned either way.
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What do you think about the Blue Jays’ schedule this season? Where do you project they will finish? Let us know in the comments below.