It’s been all smiles in the opening week of spring training for the Toronto Blue Jays. Manager John Schneider, left, watches as his son Greyson is greeted by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in Dunedin, Fla. on Friday.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The first week of spring training ground to a conclusion on Sunday at the Toronto Blue Jays’ training development centre. Pitchers and catchers reported on Wednesday and will be joined on Monday by their on-field counterparts. In all, 72 players will flood the complex in Dunedin with the hope of making an impression on John Schneider and his coaching staff.
The facility itself is huge and by reputation one of the best in the big leagues. There are a half-dozen regulation fields and two half-sized ones, a dozen batting cages, a hitting lab, covered pitching mounds and indoor and outdoor weight rooms.
There is also one area with multiple pitching mounds where prospects go through exercises before they throw an actual ball. Some toss what look like medicine balls and long tubes filled with water first to stretch and strengthen their arms.
There is so much going on at once that is is hard to keep track – and many of those areas are limited to players and staff.
The weather has been Sunshine State perfect so far, mostly in the 25 C range with bright blue skies that are nearly medicinal to Canadians who have been battered by a harsh winter.
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Many on-field players arrived by midweek, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who came bouncing, full of good energy. During his first full batting practice with teammates, he wandered among them joking and laughing. On that day he seemed only mildly out of sorts that his kibbitzing buddy and close friend Bo Bichette was no longer on hand.
The pace of spring training is a joy. It’s a time for renewal and not much regret, even for a team like Toronto that went all the way to the World Series in 2025 before it lost in seven games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It’s a new year and old acquaintances become new again. The atmosphere is light.
Schneider has spent plenty of time with his two young boys this week and George Springer arrived Saturday with his 5- and 2-year-old sons in tow. The youngsters were greeted warmly by players and got fist bumps and high-fives as they ran zoomies near the batting cage.
Kazuma Okamoto, left, is getting acquainted with his new Blue Jay teammates and getting to know manager John Schneider.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The highlight of the first week was the arrival of Japanese third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, who experienced visa issues and was thus delayed. When he finally got here on Thursday night, there was nobody available to greet the US$60-million slugger.
A dozen Japanese journalists stood along the first base line and craned their necks to watch Okamoto in his first visit to the batting cage. By Saturday, when the Blue Jays have their first spring training game, there will be more.
Junko Ichimura, a longtime baseball writer for Tokyo’s Sports Hochi, arrived here on Monday.
She mostly hopes Okamoto will make the most of the limited time he has during camp, as he is also a member of Japan’s team at the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
“He has had a very successful career in Japan; now his dream of playing in the major leagues has come true,” Ichimura said. ”I am so excited for him and for me being able to see this.”
When asked to describe what he’s like off the field, Okamoto said, “I am very serious, and manly.”
In a room full of characters, Okamoto seems like he’ll fit in nicely.
Starting pitchers Dylan Cease, Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber and Cody Ponce have also generated a lot of interest, mostly for their eccentricities. Schneider has described the first three as looking like long-locked members of a rock band and on Sunday said it would not surprise him to find Cease and Gausman running around without shoes.
Ponce, who is making a bid to resurrect his career after a splendid season pitching in Korea, is towering, throws in the mid- to upper-90s and upon his first meeting showed Schneider his Star Wars tattoos.
When introduced to the media during the off-season, Ponce chatted endlessly about Star Wars and called his newborn daughter “our own Princess Leia.”
Ponce was introduced to journalists for the first time on Sunday and put on a show.
His hands are so massive that he is adjusting to throwing a major league ball after firing slightly smaller ones in Korea.
“His hands are like banana fingers,” Schneider said.
Things kick up a notch on Monday. Baseball is closer.