The tiny Mattick dressing rooms and their eight-foot ceilings have been abandoned in favour of eight expansive new locker rooms, including a massive, oval-shaped major-league clubhouse with 72 lockers measuring eight-feet tall themselves. He could also revisit this topic around this summers trade deadline. On Thursday, media and fans got a first look at the new facility, which sits on a 65-acre site in Dunedin, Fla. and will house, for the first time, both the organizations major and minor league teams. Shapiro, who led Thursdays tour, initally valued the renovations at $80 million when he walked media through the plan for the project in December 2018. Watch: Pirates, Orioles play bottom of 9th inning without umpires, Dodgers dealt major blow with loss of SS Gavin Lux, Arrest warrant out for potential No. Its not a spring training facility meant purely for regular season preparation its a player development factory meant to be utilized year-round. Have questions about your upcoming Rogers Centre experience? Just being able to go out and throw in these simulated games and work on one or two specific things is really a valuable time.. At a minimum, it is best in class among MLB, says Mark Shapiro, Toronto Blue Jays president and CEO. Inside the 15,000 sq. Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette fields a ground ball in a drill during baseball spring training in Dunedin, Fla., on Monday, February 13, 2023.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette. Torontos front office addressed several areas of need over the off-season, filling holes in the bullpen and outfield while improving the teams offensive balance. The new Player Development Complex in Dunedin, Florida, gives the Toronto Blue Jays a new center for [+] year-round needs. And an optionable one like Trent Thornton, who has one minor-league option remaining. It also means hosting weeks-long orientations for newly drafted players and international signees, running them through intake processes and getting everyone situated within their new organization. Guerrero and reliever Yimi Garcia will represent the Dominican Republic, right-hander Jose Berrios will play for Puerto Rico and catcher Alejandro Kirk will suit up for Mexico. Published Monday, February 13, 2023 5:02PM EST Feelings of optimism, joy and excitement were ever-present Monday at the Toronto Blue Jays' player development I just can't wait to get going and work with them and just get after it.". The Toronto Blue Jays today unveiled the new, state-of-the-art Player Development Complex. Thats why Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro describes the recently completed renovation of the organizations player development complex, which club representatives unveiled Thursday, as skipping a generation. The Blue Jays are just now catching up to the field. The Blue Jays want to learn what they have in both hurlers and have positioned them against each other this spring, hoping one will prove worthy of that fifth starting gig by improving off their 2022 woes. An error has occurred while trying to update your details. That means hosting a series of specialized off-season development camps, as the Blue Jays did for nearly 100 players late last year. The Blue Jays on Thursday unveiled a new, state-of-the-art Player Development Complex, which they are touting as one of the best in baseball. Rather, organizations believe they can do a much more effective and, cynically, cost-efficient job of producing future Pillars with a more streamlined, centralized developmental operation, like what the Blue Jays envision running at their new complex. The Blue Jays will start the 2021 MLB season at the 8,500-capacity TD Ballpark, less than four miles from the Player Development Complex. We never want space to be the limiting factor in what we can do from a competitive standpoint, he says. He is also tinkering with a curveball again, doing so for a second consecutive spring, but it remains to be seen if itll rejoin his repertoire for the first time since 2019 his inaugural MLB campaign. Underneath the covered agility field at the Blue Jays sprawling player development complex, where Grapefruit League media day was held earlier in the spring, Its gratifying to be in here and Im really proud. Toronto Blue Jays Front Office | Toronto Blue Jays Front Office Directory As of February 7, 2023 Rogers Communications Edward Rogers: Chairman, Toronto Blue Jays Five batting cages are located on the north side of the complex and meant for major-leaguers. But so, too, does having a current 40-man roster with 22 homegrown players on it, including core pieces like Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Walker Buehler and Kenley Jansen, not to mention the various others used in trades to acquire supplemental premier talent such as Mookie Betts. I felt that it was an opportunity and a huge driver to bring all of our players under one roof, to shift from a spring-only facility to really move and skip a generation. The complex redoubles Torontos commitment to Dunedin and solidifies the clubs place as the only Major League team with the same Spring Training site for its entire existence, a four-decade history that will extend for at least another 25 years. For the Blue Jays, that meant losing three affiliates (the Lansing Lugnuts, Bluefield Blue Jays and Gulf Coast League Blue Jays), dozens of athletes, and several coaches and coordinators from the organization. Sitting ~95 with the heater. Those who stand out could ultimately be rewarded by pitching in meaningful situations at the major-league level during the heart of the schedule. 2000-2020 Rogers Media. Everybody would get their stuff in. 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Adam Kloffenstein, a 20-year-old right-hander the Blue Jays selected in the third round of the 2018 draft, was among them, spending two weeks at the complex in November diving into the data on his two-seam fastball in the pitching lab, throwing on the covered turf infield and grinding out workouts in the sprawling weight room. Unlike 2022, the upper tier of Torontos pipeline is loaded with high-upside arms, including Zulueta if he isnt stretched out as a starter Nate Pearson, Zach Pop, Hagen Danner and Hayden Juenger. The Toronto Blue Jays today unveiled the new, state-of-the-art Player Development Complex. This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. Today we take a look at the [], Breaking down the Patrick Kane trade to the New York Rangers, Patrick Kanes legacy as a [], Jim is back once again joined by Vox Media NHL Analyst Bruce Zeman to discuss the Timo Meier trade [], In this Wednesday's edition of NHL Rumors, we will look at the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia [], Sometimes a trade can catch you completely by surprise. Having an experience like that [at the alternate site] is kind of invaluable where you can work on certain things and you dont have to worry about your numbers. And considering the advanced high school and college programs those athletes are emerging from, theyre expecting it themselves. MLB has spent the last year dramatically overhauling the structure of minor-league baseball, culling entire leagues of teams while limiting each major-league club to four affiliates and 180 total domestic minor-leaguers. He hadnt played a game above high-A coming into the season but made such great developmental strides in Rochester that he earned his major-league debut in September. "There's going to be competition for a few spots and you want to look at those and dive into those at certain positions. Take 2020 first-round pick Austin Martin. That means that not only did the Blue Jays plan for today, based on the number of staff and players in the organization, but they tried to anticipate areas they may need to add resources and tools in for the future. Intrasquad games are an obvious means, but the Blue Jays also utilized high-velocity pitching machines to make batting practice more challenging and turned routine fielding drills into mini competitions between players. Sorry we could not verify that email address. That is, of course, assuming a rash of injuries doesnt arise. From a cold, calculated business perspective, the operational cost of a distant rookie-ball affiliate wasnt worth the potential return of discovering the next Kevin Pillar, a late-round draft pick who, against significant odds, fights his way up the minor-league ladder to become an MLB regular. And to be in a position to build a sustainable championship organization.. And that's something that everybody in our player development group is committed to.. [], On the first episode of 'According To Who? Over the decade since, 22 MLB teams have undergone major renovations or completely replaced their training facilities. And from a fan perspective, less professional baseball is unquestionably a bad thing particularly for those in the small towns across the continent that are no longer home to minor-league affiliates. Martins accustomed to working out in a vast weight room with every piece of equipment he can imagine and recovering in hydrotherapy tubs similar to the ones the Blue Jays just installed. Next, select your favourite teams and leagues and well show you their latest news and scores in the My Favourites section of the home page. After adding veterans like Brandon Belt and Kevin Kiermaier over the winter, both of whom are coming off season-ending injuries,the injury bug could play a factor this spring and that also applies to George Springer. All rights reserved.Privacy PolicyAd ChoicesTerms of Service. "I'm really excited to see the new guys," said shortstop Bo Bichette. Seems easy enough, right? It fosters comradery and the team environment. DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Alejandro Kirk will no longer participate in the upcoming World Baseball Classic as hes still away from Blue Jays camp awaiting the birth of his child. Now that Grossman is off the market, leaving few viable outfielders available in free agency, it seems the team will enter the 2023 campaign without acquiring a righty specialist to face left-handed pitching. In a funny way, pandemic baseball served to push some of these evolutions along. All our fans should be (proud) of what this environment is like., Its meaningful to our fans because its part of the ingredients, Shapiro continued. What are the things that we can control that can contribute to a championship environment? Toronto unveiled the Player Development Complex on the same site of the former Bobby Mattick Training Center at Englebert Complex, a new indoor-outdoor facility The barber shop inside the new Toronto Blue Jays Player Development Complex. After roughly 500,000 cumulative worker-hours from more than 2,500 labourers, the Blue Jays are now equipped with a far more expansive setup than what they previously had in Dunedin, where the team has trained since its inception in 1977. Republication or distribution of this content is In addition to sports science labs and a movement studio used for yoga and stretching among other activities, there is a major-league training room and a minor-league training room both with eight training tables. Barring an injury, the clubs Opening Day roster is poised to include Jordan Romano, Erik Swanson, Anthony Bass, Yimi Garcia, Tim Mayza, Adam Cimber, Trevor Richards and White in the bullpen. Ground was broken on the 115,000 square-foot project in April of 2019 once a construction partnership was formed between Gilbane Construction and Turner Construction. When submitting content, please abide by our. Now weve checked that box and now we continue to think about how we can deliver that to our players and continue to improve upon it, and whats the next step., Welcome inside our new Player Development Complex! Key features include: Equipped with more than 40,000 lbs of weighted accessories and barbells. 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