After years in the making, the Blue Jays unveiled their new player development complex in Dunedin, Fla. Situated on a 65-acre site, the complex includes six full fields, outdoor batting cages, mounds and a unique covered practice field as well as a 115,000-square-foot building that houses all kinds of amenities for both the major and minor leagues.
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On a call with the media on Thursday, Blue Jays president and CEO Mark Shapiro said it’s a complex the club is incredibly proud of, reflects their organizational values and aims to be a resource to “help build a championship culture and help drive elite performance.”
This facility has been about five years in the making since Shapiro took it on when he took over as team president in 2015. Previously, the team’s spring training facility, The Bobby Mattick Training Center, and stadium were vastly outdated. “Dunedin was the laughing stock of MLB, frankly,” Shapiro said.
“One of the first things I thought when I came here was that it was an opportunity,” he continued.
Since then, the Blue Jays believe they’ve turned the worst facility in the majors into the very best. They drew inspiration from other sports organizations around the world, including Tottenham, of the English Premier League, the University of Michigan and the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys. But, Shapiro emphasized that the structure is “uniquely ours” with baseball and the Blue Jays central to all design elements. The complex was also laid out in a way that can maximize performance, with a flow that allows players to move from one area to another seamlessly. For example, the weight room flows out to a partially covered outdoor turf space which leads to the batting cages. The facility will also be flexible so that as player development continues to evolve, their site can, too.
The project, which included renovations to TD Ballpark unveiled last year, was jointly funded by the Blue Jays, the city of Dunedin, Pinellas County, and the state of Florida, and totalled more than US$100 million. The investment includes a long-term commitment to stay in Dunedin for the next 25 years. The site will be used year-round and will be especially beneficial for minor leaguers beginning their careers with the Low-A Dunedin Blue Jays.
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The feedback from players has been positive, with many stunned at the site’s transformation. “I think the guys are blown away by it,” pitching coach Pete Walker said last week.
George Springer, who came from what he called an “impressive” facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. with the Houston Astros, praised the Toronto organization for the complex and said it’s one that offers players and staff what they need to succeed.
“There’s a ton of stuff here for guys to do what they need to do,” he said. “And I think for guys to see the organization really, really putting their (best) foot forward and having a facility like this is quietly special.”
Added Shapiro: “The way you want players to feel when they come in, I just want them to feel like we care about them — we care about them, we care about winning, we care about putting them in the best possible environment to foster that teammate and that winning.”
The complex combines both old-school and new-school technology and amenities to help players from all levels of the organization develop. While the club viewed the project as a holistic way to build and sustain a competitive environment, individuals can really use all the elements within however they see fit, said Gil Kim, the team’s director of player development.
“What this facility allows us to do is to bring as many resources as possible, to integrate them as easily and smoothly as possible and to make them as accessible as possible to players and staff. With all that, the most important thing still is how do we best reach the individual,” he said.
So, without further ado, here’s a look inside:
Interior
The interior has been designed with Toronto and the Blue Jays in mind. The club played tribute to both distant and recent past in decor elements, with former and current players pictured throughout.
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Shapiro said he’s already seen players taking selfies in the building. Seeing quotes from current players like Danny Jansen and Hyun Jin Ryu featured on walls has also been special for the players to see. “It just fires you up to get better and more than anything and more than any room I think it’s just that feeling and that vibe that drives home the level of togetherness that we want to have,” said Kim. The Blue Jays first employee, Paul Beeston, also has a board room named after him.
Major-league clubhouse, minor-league locker rooms and lounge areas
The major-league clubhouse features 72 lockers. There are three minor-league locker rooms, totalling 219 lockers. There are also separate locker rooms for major- and minor-league coaches, executive staff and women. The major-league dining space can accommodate 68 people, while the minor-league dining room has a capacity of 110 people, and both are supplemented with an outdoor dining area.
Indoor-outdoor weight room
The two-floor weight room measures a total of 22,539 square feet, which is more than five times the size of the weight room at the Bobby Mattick Center. The gym includes four garage doors that open to a large, partly covered outdoor turf. There is also a second-floor cardio loft. In total, the gym has more than 40,000 pounds of weighted equipment. There are also three sports science labs located within — for applied research, movement and pitching — but, since they include proprietary information, the Blue Jays understandably did not give us a look at those.
Training and conditioning facilities, and specific discipline workrooms
Both the major- and minor-league players have a dedicated training room with eight tables in each. The hydrotherapy room features a custom depth pool at 4, 5 and 6 feet, plus two hot and two cold tubs. There are also three separate discipline-focussed workspaces, namely pitching, hitting and defence and baserunning rooms. The building also has more than 30 meeting spaces of various sizes and an 85-seat classroom.
Outdoor training facilities
The grounds include six full fields and two half fields. One field has the same dimensions as the Rogers Centre and is turf, not grass, to mimic the playing surface in Toronto. There’s also a covered practice field, which has emerged as a favourite hang-out spot for players. It should also prove especially useful during the Florida summer heat and torrential downpours.
There are 20 gang mounds on-site for pitchers, as well as five new bullpens. For hitters, there are 12 batting cages. There is also a sloped speed hill that avid runner Charlie Montoyo has already put to good use.
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