Rejoice fellow Toronto Blue Jays fans, baseball is back as the start of the Grapefruit League campaign gets underway today at 1:05 p.m. eastern time.
The Blue Jays will travel to George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida where they will take on the New York Yankees. The game will be available on Sportsnet, however, it will be the YES broadcast so prepare for some Yankee bias.
Marcus Semien will make his Blue Jays debut at second base and bat second but don’t expect to see George Springer, Teoscar Hernandez or Randal Grichuk as the trio will not be making the trip to Tampa.
The game will showcase a number of regulars as Cavan Biggio, Bo Bichette, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Danny Jansen all get the start. Rowdy Tellez, Jonathan Davis and Joshua Palacios round out the starting nine.
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Anthony Kay will toe the rubber to start with T.J. Zeuch, Jacob Waguespack, Bryan Baker and Joey Murray expected to follow. The contest will be just seven innings under the new Spring Training game length guidelines.
Both Baker and Murray are non-roster invitees vying for a spot on the 40-man roster. Baker posted a 3.17 earned run average in 49 relief appearances between New Hampshire and Buffalo in 2019.
The 24-year old Murray pitched in 27 games including 25 starts between Lansing, Dunedin and New Hampshire in 2019 posting a 10-7 record with a 2.75 earned run average in 137.1 innings of work.
Vladdy gets the start at first base while Biggio will attempt his fate at the hot corner. Guerrero was very public this offseason about his desire to return to third base and has been taking reps at both positions this spring. Tellez will draw the start as the designated hitter.
On Monday, the Blue Jays will play host to the Pittsburgh Pirates in Dunedin with the scheduled starters slated to be Robbie Ray, Nate Pearson, Jordan Romano, Ryan Borucki, Francisco Liriano and Yosver Zulueta.
Enjoy the game kids, Play Ball.