Daily Duce: Blue Jays players respond to Toronto’s quarantine guidelines, Austin Martin gets added to the 60-man player pool, and more!
By Cam Lewis
3 years agoDaily?!?!?
As the Blue Jays slowly roll into Toronto for Summer Camp, we’ve been treated to our first actual taste of baseball action since mid-March. The team played an intrasquad game earlier this week, which featured a couple of bombs from Rowdy Tellez (here’s the first and here’s the second), a dinger from Bo Bichette, a gem at third base from Jordan Groshans, some heat from Simeon Woods Richardson, and a wicked curve from Hyun-Jin Ryu.
But that’s all been overshadowed by the ongoing drama of where the team will actually be playing its games this season.
The Jays were able to rescue their players from training in the COVID-swamp known as Florida by agreeing to follow Canada’s strict quarantine measures. The players would fly into the country after passing multiple tests and then they would stay at the hotel attached to Rogers Centre, where they would be practicing. This, of course, would mitigate the potential risk of players carrying the virus from Florida into Toronto.
Mark Shapiro said that a key part of this process has been educating the players about how a modified quarantine or a bubble environment would function, why it was necessary in order to protect the public, and that there would be penalties for those who didn’t follow the rules.
On Friday, TSN’s Scott Mitchell reported that penalties for a player leaving the bubble would be a $750,000 fine and possible jail time. Travis Shaw then replied saying that the players had only agreed to such a strict lockdown for the two-week summer camp period, not the entire season.
After receiving plenty of backlash from fans, Shaw continued on with a thread that has since been deleted…
“I currently have a paid for condo a block away from the stadium that I can’t use,” Shaw tweeted. “At no point would I risk public safety or not follow the rules. Is it wrong to want to live in a place that I’ve already paid for, to be able to go for a walk (with a mask) to be able to get fresh air, walk to get takeout food (not eat inside). We aren’t looking to party, hit the patios, go out at night, anything like that.”
I mean, I can empathize with Shaw here. Not being able to leave the hotel at all sounds like a nightmare. But we simply can’t bend the rules for baseball players at the expense of the health and safety of residents in Toronto. Canada has done a good job dealing with the pandemic largely because of strict regulations and the citizens’ willingness to buy into an incredibly draining lockdown.
Maybe Shaw and the Blue Jays would genuinely follow the rules and only step out for a quick walk while wearing a mask every once in a while. Maybe they wouldn’t go out and party at bars and eat at restaurants. But, again, the risk of having an outbreak in Toronto in order to accommodate the comfort of professional baseball players isn’t worth it.
There would also be teams coming in and out of Toronto all the time to face the Blue Jays. Would the lockdown rules be loosened for them, too? Would we just hope that the entire New York Mets or Baltimore Orioles or whoever wear masks whenever they go for a walk? Do we just hope they don’t slip out and hit up a restaurant after a game?
Ultimately, the story here isn’t that Shaw is being an entitled brat, it’s that the plan of having the Blue Jays stationed in Toronto for the regular season isn’t going to work.
If there are going to be players zipping out of Canada, travelling around the United States to multiple COVID hotbeds, and then coming back into Canada, there absolutely has to be strict quarantine measures. And, if the players aren’t on board with following the rules that have ultimately resulted in Canada flattening the curve, they can’t play here. It’s that simple.
Earlier in the week, manager Charlie Montoyo outlined two different paths that teams can take this season…
“There’s going to be two types of teams going through this,” Montoyo said. “There’s going to be the team that’s going to work together — they’re going to follow the guidelines, and they’re going to work as a group. They’re going to stay healthy, and that’s going to help you win more games. And then there’s going to be the team that’s going to complain about everything, lose focus and get sick and not be healthy. And they’re not going to do very well.”
There’s a reason Toronto is a safer place to be right now than Florida. If the players want to be safe and healthy, follow the rules that we have in place that have worked effectively. If the players want the freedom to roam around and live a normal life, play in Florida.
Anyways! Back to actual baseball stuff…
Austin Martin, fresh off of signing his massive $7 million deal, has been added to the Blue Jays’ 60-man player pool.
It’s certainly interesting to see the team’s move of Vlad away from third base come on the same day that Martin got added to the pool, but I don’t think there’s anything to look into there. Martin is on the 60-man pool in order to be a part of the Jays’ off-site training camp, it’s incredibly unlikely we see him play in a game.
As I said yesterday, it was always inevitable that Vlad would end up moving away from third base. It’s more worthwhile for him to spend his time working on hitting, which is what’s going to make him a star, and playing first, which is a position he could occupy long-term.
Playing Vlad at first or DH while using a platoon of Shaw or Brandon Drury or even Cavan Biggio or Joe Panik at third makes Toronto’s infield much, much better than it would be with Vlad at the hot corner. This season is a 60-game sprint and the Jays could be surprisingly good if everything goes right for them. That means they need to field their most optimal team as much as possible.
Circling back to Martin, the 2020 fifth-overall pick held his first media availability as a Blue Jay over Zoom a few days ago. He said that he’s excited to have the opportunity to learn from Major League players this summer…
“Definitely a weird year this year. But I look at it as a positive thing, having the opportunity to be around those big-league guys,” Martin said. “I’m just trying to gain knowledge. I think it’s cool that I’m getting a little taste of it. I get to see how they operate, what they do. And just pick brains. I just want to learn. I just want to learn and take full advantage of this experience while I can.”
Another interesting thing to follow when it comes to Martin this summer is his position. He was listed as a third baseman on MLB.com when he was drafted, but he’s also played centre field and the Blue Jays have a fairly glaring need in the outfield. Martin said in his Zoom call that he’s fine playing wherever he’s needed.
“I remember having a conversation with my high school coach my freshman fall at Vanderbilt,” Martin said. “He was asking me, ‘Where have you been playing? Where do you want to play?’ And I remember telling him I just want to get in the lineup. Wherever they want me on the field, I’ll play. I just want to play ball. I’ve always had that mentality.”
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