Jays fans scoff at complaints of unvaccinated players not allowed entry into Canada

There are still plenty of unvaccinated baseball players scattered across the MLB and it is now influencing transactions in the league.

Before infielder Trevor Story officially signed with the Boston Red Sox, the deal reportedly almost fell apart, as the 29-year-old was hesitant to get the COVID vaccine. While that is fine for a significant majority of baseball, the team and player were concerned about the fact that he would not be allowed entry into Canada to face the Toronto Blue Jays, a divisional opponent.

Story ended up getting vaccinated and put pen to paper on the six-year, $140-million contract with the Red Sox, but this did not stop word from getting out of the deal almost falling through because of his indecision to get the shot.

So much so that teams seem to worry about the supposed competitive advantage that the Jays would have if some big-time unvaccinated players had to miss a chunk of games north of the border.

In theory, the various teams that employ players unwilling to get a vaccine have an argument that only makes sense if you have major Baseball Brain. If a player is fully healthy and willing to play, but is unable to because of outside factors that greatly affect one specific team’s possible performance, then it should be talked about.

But many Blue Jays fans wanted to point out two specific things: Be an adult and get vaccinated, and the entire Toronto team is under the same jurisdiction and had to receive the shot in order to play any home games.

That is certainly an easy answer for teams that are up in arms about this supposed advantage. And if teams want to truly talk about competitive nature, they should remember the Blue Jays were forced into an extremely challenging situation for the last two years.

Due to travel across the Canada-U.S. border being heavily restricted during the last two seasons, the Blue Jays played portions of their season at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., and in Buffalo, N.Y., at their Triple-A affiliate’s stadium. During the 2021 season, on July 30, they were finally granted a level of exception from the Canadian government that allowed passage through the border and played the first game at Rogers Centre since 2019.

Not being able to play on your home field for the better part of two seasons certainly sounds like a competitive disadvantage.

Most recently, New York City lifted the vaccine mandate pertaining to athletes, making certain star players like Yankees’ Aaron Judge able to participate. The entire country of Canada might not be that easy to persuade.

Toronto is opening its season at home on April 8 against the Texas Rangers.

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