Major League Baseball

Did unsafe field contribute to injury for Jays' Michael Saunders?

Published Mar. 19, 2015 4:37 p.m. ET

Ken Rosenthal

Most major-league teams train in sparkling complexes with immaculately groomed fields. The Toronto Blue Jays do not train in such a facility. And some with the club believe that an unsafe field may have contributed to an injury to the team’s new left fielder, Michael Saunders.

The injury occurred on Feb. 25, when Saunders was shagging fly balls on a field at the Jays’ minor-league complex in Dunedin, Fla. Saunders, 28, tore the meniscus in his left knee when he stepped in a depressed portion of the outfield grass around a sprinkler.

The Jays immediately stopped using that field due to safety concerns, according to major-league sources. The field, one of five at the complex, normally receives little use after the team begins official workouts. But Saunders was an early arrival to camp, and he and other position players found the field convenient because of its proximity to the complex’s batting cages.

The fields at the minor-league complex are owned by the city of Dunedin but maintained by the Blue Jays, according to Ken Carson, the team’s former director of Florida operations. Groundskeepers repaired the area where Saunders went down after his injury occurred, a source said.

Shelby Nelson, the Jays’ director of Florida operations, referred an inquiry about the state of the facilities in Dunedin to Alex Anthopoulos, the Jays’ general manager. Anthopoulos could not be reached for comment.

Saunders’ injury is believed to be the first of its kind suffered by a Jays player since the team began training in Dunedin in 1977. The Major League Baseball Players Association is looking into the matter, though a source said that it had not received any specific complaints from Jays players.

“Things happen,” said Carson, who recently was elected president of the Florida State League. “You have to have sprinkler systems. And to have a flat surface for a sprinker system is almost impossible. I think it was one of those freak accidents. I don’t think you can really blame anyone.”

To some with the Jays, that explanation of a freak accident is more acceptable for the injury to right-hander Marcus Stroman, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee on March 10. Stroman, 23, was taking pitcher’s fielding practice on a back field with artificial turf at the Jays’ major-league facility, Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

Two sources described the turf as being in less-than-ideal condition. However, most with the team believe Stroman’s injury was flukish and not attributable to the surface.

The larger questions are whether Saunders’ injury could have been avoided and whether the Jays need to accelerate efforts to improve their training conditions. Their facilities in Dunedin last were upgraded in 2002, Carson said.

Jays president Paul Beeston acknowledged in a radio interview Wednesday that the team’s major-league park in Toronto, Rogers Centre, requires a “major upgrade” that may cost between $200 million and $400 million.

The Jays are talking to Dunedin officials about upgrades to both their major- and minor-league facilities, and the discussions are moving in a positive direction, a source said.

Florida Auto Exchange Stadium, which opened in 1990 and seats 5,510, will be the smallest park in the Grapefruit League once the Houston Astros relocate from Kissimmee to West Palm Beach, a move that could happen as soon as 2017.

A number of other Grapefruit League parks that opened around the same time as Florida Auto Exchange – in Sarasota, Port Charlotte and Fort Myers-Lee County – have undergone extensive renovations in recent years.

The Jays at one point had worked with the Astros on moving to a proposed complex in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. But the Astros and Washington Nationals instead partnered on the construction of a new facility in West Palm Beach.

On Jan. 14, 2014, the Tampa Bay Times reported: “The team has pledged to remain in Dunedin until its contract expires in Dec. 2017, but it had threatened to move after that because of unhappiness over Dunedin’s training facilities.”