Blue Jays announce 30-man roster for Opening Day

We don’t know where our home is going to be, but we know our roster.

The Blue Jays announced their 30-man roster for Opening Day on Friday, per the team’s Twitter account…

There are only a few surprises, none of which are really major.

Nate Pearson isn’t on the roster, but he’ll be travelling with the team on its Taxi Squad. So, as soon as his service time has been manipulated, he’ll “join” the team. Also on the Taxi Squad is Ryan Borucki, which suggests that he isn’t going to be the Jays’ fifth starter off the hop. One (or both?) of Anthony Kay or Thomas Hatch, who are on the 30-man roster, will presumably be Toronto’s fifth starter until Pearson gets added.

A.J. Cole and Brian Moran, two non-roster invitees to spring training, have been selected to the active roster, meaning they need to also be added to the 40-man roster. Cole, who had a pretty strong showing in Cleveland last year, seemed like a lock to be added, but Moran is a bit more of a surprise.

I had figured that Thomas Pannone, who’s already on the 40-man, would be the lefty out of the ‘pen. We don’t yet know who’s being removed from the 40-man in order to make room for Cole or Moran. Another young arm I had figured would crack the roster be used in the ‘pen was Sean Reid-Foley, but it seems he’ll be heading to the team’s alternate training site to continue to be stretched out.

And, finally, we have our position players. The only surprise here is that Billy McKinney has cracked the roster, giving Toronto six outfielders for the time being. Also, rookie Santiago Espinal has earned himself a shot right out of the gate, which suggests that Brandon Drury still isn’t ready to go.

We’ll find out by tomorrow what the official roster transactions are.