4 offseason decisions the Blue Jays are paying for right now

4. Renovating Rogers Centre

The Jays had decided it was time their ballpark needed a facelift, especially when it was clear they were not going to get a new ballpark built for them any time in the near future. As a result, during the past offseason, they began their $300 million renovation project on their Rogers Centre home that was to be completed in phases over the coming years. One of the main aspects of the project involved the complete redesign of the outfield wall and dimensions and the bullpen area, along with creating “outfield districts” in the stands to enhance fan experience.

These changes definitely brought new excitement and pleasure for Jays fans, providing new amenities and views as part of the new ballpark experience. However, for some reason, maybe it has been the change in aerodynamics in the stadium as a result of the renovations, or maybe it has been the altered sightlines for the batter when facing the outfield while at the plate, the once hitter-friendly ballpark known for being a long ball haven has become anything but so far this year for the Blue Jays.

Over the years, the Jays generally have hit more home runs at home than away on the road for the past few decades. Normalizing the number of home and away games they have played to date, they are currently hitting about 1.2 times as many home runs on the road, compared to that at home, and they are currently on pace to hit only 81 home runs at home all season, which would be their lowest accumulated total over a 162-game schedule in over 15 years. With the Jays’ offence often struggling at times this year to generate runs, taking away one of their main advantages that they had over the years has placed more burden on them in coming through in the clutch, which unfortunately, as mentioned above, hasn’t been working at all.

These offseason decisions obviously hasn’t automatically made or broken the Jays’ season. But they have certainly provided the team with extra challenges to overcome as they hope to maintain their playoff aspirations for this year and ultimately the years beyond.