The Vancouver Canadians’ home-opener is April 15 at Nat Bailey Stadium and there’s a host of promotions planned, alongside nine fireworks nights and bobblehead giveaways.
Bobbleheads fans will want to circle May 18, and June 14 and 29, on their calendars and set a course for Nat Bailey Stadium on those dates.
The first pitch of the Vancouver Canadians’ season goes April 4 in Tri-City, with the home-opener at The Nat on April 15. The C’s have been announcing various promotions for the season in recent weeks, and that includes handing out bobbleheads for former C’s Dasan Brown (May 18); Davis Schneider (June 14); and Steward Berroa (June 29).
The C’s are the high-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays and play in the six-team Northwest League with the Tri-City Dust Devils (Los Angeles Angels); Spokane Indians (Colorado Rockies); Hillsboro Hops (Arizona Diamondbacks); Everett AquaSox (Seattle Mariners); and the Eugene Emeralds (San Francisco Giants). Each big-league club has four full-season farm clubs, and Vancouver is the second rung on that development ladder for Toronto.
Here are five things to know about the C’s upcoming season:
1. Along with the bobblehead hat trick, promotions for the C’s this season include nine fireworks nights, which is three more than last year.
The first one is on opening night April 15. Then comes May 27, June 26, July 3, 19, and 26, Aug. 9 and 23, and Sept. 6.
There’s an Asahi Night (May 13); Women’s in Sports Day featuring an appearance by broadcaster Hazel Mae (May 17); a South Asian Heritage Night (May 27); a Dog Day of Summer (June 10); a Marvel Superhero Day (June 28); and a Pride Night (July 22).
There’s the standard slate of Family Fun Sundays and the Nooners at The Nat afternoon games.
“With the passing of Japanese Canadian baseball great Kaye Kaminishi this past fall, we knew that hosting a Vancouver Asahi night was an appropriate tribute to both a man and a team that will forever have deep roots within our community,” explained Rob Fai, longtime C’s play-by-play broadcaster who’s back with the team this season as director of sales and marketing.
“We’re thrilled to debut South Asian Heritage Night with a special jersey that was design by a local Indo Canadian artist who we think knocked it out of the park. From food trucks, on-field entertainment and these statement jerseys our hope is to showcase the pageantry and vibrancy of this community.”
There’s also more promotions to be announced, Fai said.
“I think this is one of the more creative promotional schedules this organization has put out in my time around here,” Fai said. “It’s very kid-centric right out of the gate and combines the classics like fireworks and Nooners along with a few theme nights that I think really pay tribute to the history of the game in Vancouver.”
2. MLB remade the minors during the COVID-19 shutdown. They cut 43 teams from the overall farm system. They moved others up and down the levels. The C’s and five of their seven longtime Northwest League brethren got the bump up two tiers, going from short-season single-A to their high-A position. The short-season single-A level no longer exists.
The new affiliation agreements also all had facility standards clauses and renovations to The Nat started last season and will continue through the season. The barbecue area down the first-base side is being replaced by a building that will house the batting cages and other amenities for the players, along with things like change rooms for women staffers.
“We’re going to work on some solutions to make it as easy as possible. We’re going to work with our neighbours so that people going to the community centre and other venues near here are able to do their events with as little disruption as possible,” Bailey added.
3. Redoing the minors cut costs, considering all the teams that were dropped. It was also about amping up the focus on player development. Once again this season, teams like the C’s will play six-game series from Tuesday to Sunday every week, with few exceptions.
The set-up dials in structure and routine for the players. It also means that fans at The Nat who would see two opposing teams in a weeklong homestand before now only see one. And that’s particularly heightened in a six-team league like Vancouver’s Northwest circuit.
4. The Jays pegged Jose Mayorga, 32, to be the C’s manager this season. He’s been managing in the Toronto system since 2022, and last year he was with the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays.
North Delta native Brent Lavallee, 38, who was the C’s manager over the past three seasons, is at the helm of the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats this season. He led Vancouver to the two-team playoffs in all three seasons with the club, highlighted by winning the banner in 2023. The C’s were a combined 212-177 in his three regular seasons.
5. It’s hard to guess what the C’s lineup to start the season might look like. The top prospect in the Toronto organization, according to MLB Pipeline, is 19-year-old shortstop Arjun Nimmala, a Tampa, Fla., native who was a first-round selection (No. 20 overall) in the 2023 MLB Draft. Nimmala played most of last season in Dunedin, Fla., where he hit .232 in 83 games, with 16 homers and 46 RBIs.
Pipeline had him as the No. 86 best prospect in baseball to start this season.