The Toronto Blue Jays will not have a say in whether the Rogers Centre roof will be open during the postseason, according to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
Appearing on The Jeff Blair Show on Wednesday morning, Manfred explained the league’s rationale.
“(Major League Baseball) will control the decision,” Manfred told hosts Jeff Blair and Stephen Brunt on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. “It probably goes without saying that in a series this important, leaving that decision to the home team is probably not appropriate. There are a set of criteria that has been established (and) both teams are aware of those and we’ll proceed based on that.”
Manfred said the determination will be based on a number of factors, temperature and expected precipitation. While he understands that some Blue Jays fans are upset with the earlier start times in the ALDS, he said it’s impossible to please everyone when there are so many different time zones at play.
“There are four games that day,” he said. “There are only so many hours of the day when you can conceivably play. Somebody has to play in that early time slot. The way that games fell in terms of travel and potential matchups, it was the Texas-Toronto game that was the most feasible in that time slot.
“You can’t win. People in New York are complaining because they’re on West Coast (games) and the games are too late. People in Toronto don’t want to play a day game and the game’s too early for people in Vancouver. Impossible to keep everyone happy.”
The Blue Jays open their best-of-five series Thursday at 3:37 p.m. ET against the Texas Rangers.
