Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Opening Day is now less than a week away, this coming Thursday, March 28. The Toronto Blue Jays will be hosting the Detroit Tigers in their home opener at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. First pitch will be at 3:37 p.m. ET. Marcus Stroman will be the starting pitcher for the Jays, while the Tigers have not yet announced their starting pitcher.

Although the Jays may not make the playoffs this season, it could still be an exciting one for their passionate fans, with a lot of new and young faces joining the team, with the biggest name being young Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who just turned 20 on March 16, one of the top prospects across the MLB. Guerrero Jr., the son of MLB Hall-of-Famer Vladimir Guerrero, is currently injured with an oblique strain, however.

This is definitely a rebuilding year as the team parted ways with two veterans this past offseason, trading catcher Russell Martin to the Los Angeles Dodgers and releasing shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who ended up signing with the division rival New York Yankees. But, they did add veteran pitcher Clay Buchholz, who they faced a lot when he was a part of the Boston Red Sox organization.

The season will see the Blue Jays play 162 games in a span of 186 days, as the season will end on Sunday, Sept. 29. Toronto will have two long homestands of 10 games each, one at the end of June, and the other in August. The All-Star break is July 8-11, with the All-Star festivities being held in Cleveland, Ohio this year.

The Blue Jays will play each of their division opponents (Red Sox, Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays) a total of 19 times each. They’ll have just one series at home and one on the road for the rest of the American League. For the National League, they’ll have games against the West division (Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies), as well as last year’s NL East division winner, the Atlanta Braves.

While fans may be disappointed to not see the Blue Jays in the postseason for a third consecutive year this fall, hopefully they will still be pleased with an interesting and exciting year for this new young team.

Sources:

-Video courtesy of CBSSports.com

-Other stats and info courtesy of MLB.com