Report: Blue Jays Could Play Game in London Within Next 5 Years

MLB reportedly wants to host regular season games in international cities within the next five years, and the Blue Jays are part of those plans.

According to Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi, the league will stage games in London, Paris, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Asia during the lifespan of the current collective bargaining agreement.

Right now, London makes the most sense for the Blue Jays, said team president and CEO Mark Shapiro.

“My understanding is every team will be involved in either an international game or one of the marquee games,” Shapiro told Davidi. “We've expressed interest in the past in some of the international contests, some make more sense than others. If there's one in England that certainly makes the most sense for us.”

Davidi also reports that MLB hopes to include more special-event games like last season’s Field of Dreams matchup between the Yankees and White Sox, which recorded 5.87 million viewers, the largest regular season baseball audience on any network since 2005.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., wearing his dad's old number, just hit a walk-off home run to end the Blue Jays' spring training ... in Montreal. pic.twitter.com/ADNzYqSmeK
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 28, 2018

Starting in 2014, the Blue Jays began playing preseason games at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, though that tradition was cancelled before the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and there haven’t been talks of reviving the event.

MLB last played in London in 2019, when the Yankees and Red Sox played a two-game set at London Stadium. Additional games were also played in Tokyo and Monterrey, Mexico, that year.

H/T Shi Davidi