The Blue Jays are planning extensive renovations at Rogers Centre, as Venues Now’s Don Muret reports that the club will spend $200-$250MM in upgrades to the ballpark. The specifics of the renovations aren’t known, though Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi reports that the work is “likely to include a redesign of the stadium’s lower bowl.” Given the potential scale of the redesigns, Davidi speculates that the renovations may slowly take place over the next few years, with work restricted to the offseason so fans or team personnel won’t be impacted during regular-season games.
Rogers Centre (which opened in 1989) is the seventh-oldest of all active Major League ballparks, and while the Jays were known to be exploring their options for building a new stadium near the current property or perhaps elsewhere in Toronto, the pandemic seems to have changed the team’s plans. Renovating Rogers Centre now seems like the preferred and simpler route for the Blue Jays, rather than spend years finding and developing a new site.
More from both the AL and NL East divisions…
- The Marlins have hired Roman Ocumarez as the team’s new international director, according to ESPN.com’s Enrique Rojas (Twitter link). Ocumarez comes to Miami from the Astros, where he worked as a scout and most recently as an international scouting supervisor. Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, and Luis Garcia are just a few of the notable signings credited to Ocumarez, with that particular trio already providing a huge return on the Astros’ total investment of $40K in bonus money. The Marlins will look for Ocumarez to continue that success at finding hidden gems, and carrying on the Marlins’ own history of finding and developing quality international prospects.
- Christian Vazquez has begun playing winter ball in Puerto Rico, as The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes that Vazquez feels the extra work will help him bounce back from a disappointing year at the plate. The Red Sox catcher hit only .258/.308/.352 in 498 plate appearances, and he is now in the final year of his contract after Boston exercised its $7MM club option on Vazquez’s services for 2022. Obviously, better numbers will help re-establish Vazquez as a reliable starting catcher and line him up for his next deal, whether that contract could come with the Sox or another team. There has already been an indication that the Red Sox are looking beyond Vazquez, as the team was reportedly close to acquiring Jacob Stallings from the Pirates before Pittsburgh ultimately dealt the catcher to the Marlins. Speier observes that Vazquez decided to play winter ball of his own volition, as the Red Sox aren’t allowed to be in contact with players due to the lockout, and might well have not permitted the veteran backstop to participate under normal circumstances.
- Relief pitching has been an issue for the Nationals for years, and in looking ahead to next season, the Nats have already acquired Francisco Perez from the Guardians and added three relievers in the minor league Rule 5 Draft. As The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty notes, this can help the Nationals augment a bullpen that has already parted ways with several members of its 2021 relief corps, and is lacking in homegrown minor league relievers who could provide immediate help.
Wait, the sports franchise isn’t demanding public funds for their private org and keep all the money for a new stadium? Amazing.
Well considering Rogers was able to purchase the facility and land for a similar cost to a house in Toronto not too long ago, they would have a really tough time asking for the government for more money.
yeah right. good luck finding a house in toronto for only $25 million. maybe in pickering.
Yeah, but who tf wants to live in Pickering? Gross.
Same with the Cubs. Tom Ricketts had to pay 500MM for stadium improvements, purchase of the street and the offices & hotel. And no help at all. Then, he starts his own TV network, losing the Comcast revenue, and what happens after all of that? Yep, the pandemic.
I remember when the Rogers Centre (nee Skydome) opened and was a state of the art facility. Now we are talking new stadiums and renovations. Time really does fly…
It’s amazing that Roger’s is the 7th oldest stadium in baseball. Obviously, Fenway & Wrigley are 1-2 and will remain that way for the foreseeable future, but the fact that Roger’s Centre is the 5th oldest stadium amongst the remaining 28 parks is crazy! I’m guessing even the ‘old’ Rangers stadium was newer than Roger’s Centre. Did the Ranger’s stadium (which was beautiful) even last 20 years? I wonder what the lifespan of new stadiums are expected to be now? With these stadiums costing $1.5B – $2.0B+ to construct, you’d think that teams would hope to get 40-50+ years out of them but that may not possible with all of the new amenities and technology fans expect. Long gone are the days where a comfortable seat and good sight lines were more than enough to sell out a ballpark. Nowadays, it seems like these stadiums need some sort of ‘wow factor’ or unique attraction (like largest video scoreboard) to maintain consistent fan attendance. While it’s great to see the Bluejays investing in their stadium and fan experience, $250M in renovations is not nearly enough to bring Roger’s Centre up to par with the other new, recently-built ballparks. No wonder ticket prices are going through the roof! (Pun intended). I do hope that natural grass is part of the renovation plans; artificial surfaces in baseball should be outlawed!
The Rangers stadium was gorgeous . The new one is a warehouse
Can’t do anything about it now but they probably would have been able to get pretty far in to the Reno while the team was away the last 2 years.
I see no reason now they shouldn’t find a way to put real grass down and make it a baseball only stadium
Ocumarez will be a great signing for the Marlins. He will help expand the Marlins presence in DR, VZLA and other hispanic hotbed countries
When they sold Shapiro to the fanbase as the best choice, they constantly noted he is a ‘stadium builder’. So far, he’s done nothing in that regard. Let’s see what he does with $250M because his job and legacy in Toronto depends on it.
Geeze….Tough Crowd……
Mr. Shapiro brought in people to run the Jays departments and put together an exciting contending ML team (last year and for at least the next 3 years); as well as an excellent farm system. He even upgraded the coaching staff.
It appears the groundwork for the renovation have been done by proposals from the architects. It appears the financing is also in place, and maybe the sign-offs from regulatory agencies as well. Now they’re prepared to go to the next phase. The fact that Rogers Centre has been pretty much closed due to COVID has nothing to do with Mr. Shapiro.
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So many of the posters here think that doing anything with an MLB franchise is the same as driving up to the takeout window at a fast food restaurant, placing your order, and driving away with the goodies a few minutes later.
Try building a house and see the signoffs you have to get from government agencies – bad enough in America, 10 times worse in Canada. And we’re talking something much larger than a house.
yeah i don’t get the continual shapiro hate. you’d figure by now even those who were still on the train 2 years ago would’ve admitted by now they were wrong by now.
I wasn’t a fan at first but very pleased with the work he and Atkins have done. Regarding stadiums, he got a state of the art spring training facility built in Dunedin. Also was in talks with Brookfield about a massive rebuilt stadium in the same space but there are massive logistical challenges to it (including another year where the jays wouldn’t be playing in Toronto)
Didn’t the new player development centre in Dunedin just happen under his watch?
Did they have some hanky panky going on the upper deck and in the hotel for all to see way back in the day?
Plenty. Know that for a fact!
Many articles herein have mentioned Boston was close to getting Stallings yet not one has mentioned what the team offered. My guess is they weren’t close at all but the leaking of the possible deal was meant to kick Vasquez in the butt (if so, it apparently worked).
It’s pretty normal to not find out what was offered by the team that didn’t land the trade. If there are multiple reports the Red Sox had been close you really don’t have a cause to write it off as a lie.
Some writers are close to players and agents; others are known to be close to people within the organizations. While exact players may not always be named as deference to those players, we often learn parameters. Herein most stories just had in general words and usually that means a team was just doing its due diligence or that they had another motive, etc.
doesnt behoove the Sox to tell some of their prospects they wanted to trade them anyways.
Exactly. I just don’t believe they were serious in discussions as compared to checking in with BC
I’m old enough to remember when they talked of having real grass on the field in Rogers Centre, which would constitute the best possible improvement.
Well, actually you’d only have to be ten years old to have heard about that.
natural grass , somehow, someway.
Rogers Centre is probably the nicest baseball centre in North America. I don’t know of any other baseball centres that come close.
Spelled like a patriotic Canadian. Lol
It’s also the nicest retractable dome in MLB. Everything else is a shoebox with a retractable lid, not a dome.
The Rogers Center being the 7th oldest park in the MLB, and despite the fact that the trend in recent years is to go to the older retro ball parks like Camden Yard. The Roger Center is still a premiere ball park.
We have the luxury of knowing no matter what the weather is there will be a game. The facilities are clean and comfortable and when those times when the team has been in the post season battle the place rocks.. And god knows with our climax a dome is a luxury.
Things lacking are a natural grass surface although they have done that for the infield, they should work on it for the outfield next it saves players bodies. The parking around the park is terrible its limited and expensive. They should have built someplace like the Woodbine Race Track area, lots of land, amble space for parking and good road access.
1 billion dollars is the same as 100 million 20 years ago. What is being put down for renovations is peanuts, but peanuts is all that is needed. I’m sure modernization is really what they are going for like Wi-Fi throughout the Centre that can handle tens of thousands of people logged on. Natural grass would be a great improvement as well, plus it would give the grounds crew year round work. Somebody has to water that grass throughout the fall and winter you can’t just let it die and replant before April.
Since these are boring topics during the lull in activity caused by the lockout lets review the performance of Bloom. I put together his brilliant acquisitions and listed the places he wasted money that could have gone to Mookie and other STAR players rather than being spread across lots of mediocre players.
By year this is how Bloom has used the $73M that has freed up since he arrived in Boston. If you want to judge the GM fairly, recognize he has converted DD’s philosophy of having a half dozen high paid stars and everyone else making less than $5M to paying four stars big money and another eight mediocre players between $5M and $15M. So the trade off has been two superstars for 8 mediocre players. That’s very consistent with the TB philosophy which has yielded ZERO World Championships.
2020 – $19.3M wasted on a 60 game season
Perez $6M 4.4 ERA and 1.34 WHIP – OVERPAID
Pillar $4.3M Played in 30 games hit .274 – should have played more
Moreland $3M Played in 22 games hit .328 – should have played more
Peraza $2.9M Played in 34 games hit .225 – bust
Plawecki $0.9M Played in 24 games hit .341 – should have played more
Osich $0.9M ERA 5.74 and WHIP 1.34 – wasted money
M Hernandez $0.7M Never played! Huge bust.
McHugh $0.6M Never played! Huge bust.
2021 – $24.9M to not win the division
Kiki $7M hit .250 with an OPS+ of 107 – OVERPAID
Richards $10M ERA 4.87 WHIP 1.60!! – GROSSLY OVERPAID
Renfroe $3.1M .259 average and OPS+ 112 – Good deal so Bloom trades him
M Gonzalez $3M – .202 average OPS+ 52 – WASTED MONEY
Santana $1.8M – .181 average OPS+ 57 WASTED MONEY
2022 – $22M
Paxton $10M TBD – Should miss major portion of season
Wacha $7M TBD
Hill $5M TBD
This doesn’t even include his bad re-signings like E-Rod and Barnes!!
Is it any wonder the paid influencers have to come out in droves to support this guy? Honestly, would you rather have Mookie or Paxton, Wacha, Hill, Kiki and JBJ? My answer without a doubt is Mookie. And if Mookie didn’t want to be in Boston then a Mookie equivalent has to be better than the group listed above that costs $41M in 2022.
People need to see that the philosophical change is the problem. A team has 9 hitting spots on offense in the AL and 6 key pitching spots. Those 15 spots need to be balanced between cheap and expensive talent and the price must match the performance to be successful. With the old 25 man roster DD had six high cost guys and 19 guys costing $5M or less as his goal. The 19 inexpensive guys were comprised of at least 6 guys who came from the farm system over a six year period so their cost spread evenly over the years. Many were under $1M until their arbitration years. Very few made it to $5M by the time they were free agents and the ones that did were destined to be all-stars.
Today, Bloom has 8 players making $5M to $15M (Hill, Wacha, Paxton, Vazquez, Kiki, Barnes, Devers and JBJ). 4 players making over $15M (Eovaldi, Bogaerts, JD and Sale). and of course his biggest payroll mistake is the $16M going to Price to not play.
Other than Price, the big money spent is for outstanding players that remain from the DD era. The new middle tier is filled with mediocrity. .250 hitters or worse in JBJ, Vazquez and Kiki) and not so great SPs like Hill, Wacha and Paxton. Add to that a closer who lost his job last year and an over paid DH playing 3B and hurting the pitching staff and you have the new Bloom approach to being effective and efficient. The payroll hasn’t gone down in the first three years and the talent level has fallen dramatically.
So what has Bloom failed at? Reducing costs, finding cheap talent that performs above it’s cost, losing star players like Mookie, Price and Benny and keeping Cora. Everyone said give him three years. DD got three division titles in those first 3 years. Bloom has none. DD got a ring and Bloom has NONE. DD started with less and still won the division titles and ring and Bloom started with more and wasted two elite players in his first major act as the new GM. On a grading scale he is by definition an F for Failure.
He is following John Henry’s wishes. It’s interesting that you make no mention of him grabbing Whitlock from the Yankees, trading for Pivetta, trading for Schwarber and staying away from Rizzo and Gallo, getting a last place team to the ALCS in one year, and the total overhaul of the farm system to a top 10 in short order. He’s not a failure, but your analysis might be.
Butch – The comments relate to spending. Yes, Whitlock was a great pick-up both from a talent perspective and money perspective. The point of the comments was detailing the wasted money. Whitlock was NOT mentioned because he wasn’t a waste of money.
The Pivetta trade was also a smart move that has worked out well. The irony is that he did to Benny and Chavis what Philly did to Pivetta. So he’s behind in overall trades that involve players prematurely being traded before getting a chance to prove their long term value.
Schwarber was an oversight on my part. He was a humongous mistake. and waste of money. The team didn’t need a 3rd DH. Complete bonehead move that only happened because Schwarber didn’t exceed $12M since it was late in the season. $12M appears to be a max contract number as far as I can tell. I don’t believe Bloom has ever signed a player for more.
I’m not sure why Gallo would be wanted by anyone and I really wasn’t writing about how incredibly bad Cashman is at his job so not getting Gallo wasn’t even on my radar as a plus for Bloom. In fact, I think it’s a stretch to suggest Bloom should get credit for not making a bad mistake. Isn’t that expected when you hire a guy to be GM? The Rizzo part of you comment hits home on the huge disrespect being shown to Dalbec. Boston didn’t need an upgrade at 1B. They have their guy for the next decade if they don’t move him to 3B to lessen the damage Devers causes. Bloom should never had a long-term 1B on his radar at the deadline. So once again, should he get credit for not wanting Rizzo? I don’t think so. Like I said, it’s a stretch to give a guy credit for not doing something dumb.
You think Bloom deserves credit for taking one of the most talented teams in baseball and destroying it then signing a bunch of mediocre players and making a long shot spot in the playoffs? Wow what incredibly low expectations for a GM.
First lets clear up your misleading statement. The last place team happened because of injuries not talent and a horrendous manager who screwed up Spring Training and hurt the pitching staff which then over burdened the bullpen making the pitching a disaster in 2019. You can’t spin the facts any more than you did. Now lets compare the far weaker team DD inherited and turned into 3 consecutive Division Champs and 1 WS champ that might have been 2 if Houston hadn’t cheated in 2017 against the fully loaded in their prime team Bloom inherited and promptly destroyed by releasing their best player..
So you consider a guy who intentionally destroys the talent level of a team so he can lay claim to any future success while fans watch that their team win the equivalent of 67 games in 2020 a real plus for an organization? And you do this after the previous guy showed up added a couple of elite players and won three divisions and a ring faster than the guy who started with more and turned it into less but lucked out and barely made the playoffs? Seriously?
Are you suggesting barely making the playoffs after two years is better than winning three consecutive division titles and a ring? What a ridiculous comment. SPIN DOCTOR. That’s all anyone can surmise from you tainted version of the facts.
Also, check the rankings of the farm system (which by the way are a bogus measure for the success of a farm system). The team rose from 21st to 9th gaining 150 points when they drafted Mayer. YES they got rewarded for FAILURE and you are counting that as a plus in favor of Bloom? SPIN DOCTOR!!
You don’t see any problems with that type of thinking? It’s like taking your current car and crashing it into a wall and having your insurance replace it with a new one then telling everyone about the new car as if you just went out and bought it rather than you got it because of a colossal screw=up.
Failure should never counted as a positive in the evaluation of a GM. At best the addition of Mayer is the by product of a poor performance by a new GM who lacks the knowledge and experience to be a big market GM. The rest of the farm system has actually fallen off since Bloom arrived thanks to the graduation of players like Houck and Dalbec and the massive downgrade of the crap players in the Mookie deal where Bloom showed how bad a deal maker he is..