When can you catch a doubleheader with the Blue Jays and a minor league affiliate?

The World Series is over and free agent frenzy has not begun, so what’s better to do than to plan out baseball road trips for 2018? One of the most thrilling road trips you could do is to catch an intercity doubleheader: one involving the Blue Jays and one involving one of their minor league affiliates.

Here are the doubleheader possibilities for the upcoming season:

Toronto–Buffalo Doubleheader [159 km / 2 hours]

I live in Toronto so I have pulled off two games on a single day between Toronto and Buffalo a couple times. With the Blue Jays moving many of their Saturday games to 4 pm, there are fewer chances to catch a Blue Jays–Bisons doubleheader in 2018. You will have four opportunities, so start applying for your Nexus card now:

• Wednesday, May 9: Buffalo hosts Rochester at 1:05 pm, Toronto hosts Seattle at 7:07 pm.
• Monday, July 2: Toronto hosts Detroit at 1:07 pm, Buffalo hosts Scranton/Wilkes–Barre at 7:05 pm
• Saturday, July 21: Toronto hosts Baltimore at 1:07 pm, Buffalo hosts Durham at 6:05 pm (so drive fast!)
• Wednesday, August 22: Toronto hosts Baltimore at 12:37 pm, Buffalo hosts Scranton/Wilkes–Barre at 7:05 pm

Boston–Fisher Cats Doubleheader [91 km / 1 hour]

The Blue Jays play in Boston three times and Manchester, the home of the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, is just a stone’s throw away. But beware of Boston traffic!

• Monday, May 28: The start time in Boston has not been announced, but the Fisher Cats are at home playing Hartford at 1:35 pm, so the doubleheader’s likely a-go since it’ll probably be an evening game at Fenway.

The Fisher Cats are in Portland, Maine the next time the Jays are in Boston (June 12–14), and the two stadiums are separated by 175 km / just under 2 hours. Because of game times in Portland, a doubleheader possibility is unlikely, unless the Jays just happened to be the Sunday Night Baseball game that weekend.

St. Petersburg–Dunedin Blue Jays Doubleheader [30 km / 30 min]

I was able to catch a doubleheader this August, watching the Jays at the Trop in the afternoon (Tom Koehler’s debut!) then driving back to Dunedin for the nightcap. The Rays have not released their schedules but the big league Jays play at Tropicana Field May 4–6 while the D-Jays are in Clearwater, which is a few minutes closer to Tropicana than Dunedin.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a possibility for a Blue Jays–Lugnuts or Blue Jays–Canadians doubleheader in 2018, but they do play close enough to each other to catch the two teams on the same trip:

• Blue Jays play in Seattle August 2-5 while the Vancouver Canadians are in Hillsboro August 1-5. Hillsboro is 298 km / 3 hour south of Seattle.
• Blue Jays are in Chicago to play the White Sox on July 27-29 while on July 25-27 the Lugnuts are in South Bend, Indiana which is 148 km / 1 hour, 45 minutes east of Chicago. As a bonus, the Bisons are in Indianapolis on the 27th through the 29th. Indianapolis is 291 km / 3 hours southeast of Chicago and 240 km / 2 hours, 30 minutes south of South Bend.

The Bluefield Blue Jays and the Gulf Coast League Blue Jays have not released their 2018 schedules.