Proximity and schedule not the only reasons why Blue Jays may come to PNC Park - TribLIVE

Wait. What’s the proposed trade?

The Pittsburgh Penguins straight up for the Toronto Blue Jays?

Sorry, Toronto. You are going to have to do better than that. Perhaps if you still had Kawhi Leonard on the Raptors, we could talk. But for now, don’t you think you should at least throw in the AHL’s Marlies as a sweetener?

How about the Argonauts from the CFL? They could be willing to sign Antonio Brown before he retires and bring him back to Pittsburgh! That’d be … never mind.

No. Shipping the five-time Stanley Cup champion Penguins up to Toronto for the NHL playoffs “hockey in the hub” isn’t ideal.

Nor is it ideal for Major League Baseball to have a Canadian team that Canada doesn’t want for the time being. But I guess that’s where this little sports border exchange comes into play in the covid-19 era.

The United States is unfit to host postseason hockey. So the Penguins and the NHL Eastern Conference teams are going to be “bubbled” in Toronto for the playoffs. The Western Conference teams will be in Edmonton.

Meanwhile, Canada isn’t comfortable with a bunch of American baseball teams hopping back and forth across the border to play in Toronto. So the Blue Jays need a place to play. And, apparently, the Pirates are willing to loan out PNC Park as a temporary home for the Blue Jays.

What’s in it for the Pirates besides being good neighbors and friendly partners within MLB circles? Who knows. Maybe nothing. But it is possible that PNC Park could be home to two teams during the 60-game sprint of a season.

Unfortunately, neither of those teams cracked the 70-win barrier last season. In fact, the Blue Jays finished with an even worse record (67-95) than the Pirates (69-93).

Yikes! Could PNC Park actually house two last-place teams at once?

Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun doesn’t think so. He joined me for Wednesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast, and he actually thinks that the Blue Jays may be significantly improved.

“The young core of position players of this team has a massive upside,” Longley told me. “Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio. They showed some good signs as rookies last year.”

Toronto also added to its pitching staff with the likes of Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark and Chase Anderson.

Plus, with the Jays playing in the hybrid Eastern Division, that means Baltimore and Miami will be in that group. So Toronto likely won’t be in the basement.

Longley also talks about how this potential partnership grew. Initially, most assumed the Blue Jays would host games in their Dunedin spring training location or at the minor league stadium in Buffalo. But apparently the players and management were lobbying for a major league stadium because of park size, amenities and training space.

“Developing players in a minor league environment was not how they wanted to do it,” Longley said. “Players implored management to find a MLB stadium. They didn’t want to work in an environment where there were inferior batting cages and weight rooms and lighting. If they were going to suffer through being displaced, they wanted to do it in a major league stadium. At that point, management took the ball and went to places that made sense geographically. And Pittsburgh made sense.”

According to Longley, there are a few other factors besides geography that could make this goal happen.

• There are only seven conflicts on the schedule, and Longley says four or five can be easily erased.

• Longley says Pirates general manager Ben Cherington — formerly the Toronto vice president of baseball operations — has helped move discussions along. He has a close relationship with Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro.

• Longley even suggested the “visuals” of PNC Park’s scenic backdrop may be an added perk from a broadcasting perspective.

“What a treat it would be for fans in Canada to watch the games,” Longley said. “Anyone who has been to that ballpark knows that it is one of the more spectacular parks throughout MLB. As a ‘television studio’ for Blue Jays fans across Canada, I think it would work rather nicely.”

You can listen to our entire conversation by clicking on the podcast link below. We get into other options that the Blue Jays may have besides Pittsburgh, the development of former Pirates first-round pick Reese McGuire with his new franchise and how Toronto fans are reacting to this prospect.

Listen: Tim Benz and Rob Longley, of the Toronto Sun, talk about the possibility of the Blue Jays playing in Pittsburgh

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

Categories: Pirates/MLB | Sports | Breakfast With Benz