Brent Lavallee is back for his third year at the helm of the Vancouver Canadians and he’s not fazed by the upgrades to the ballpark, saying that the workers are “part of the family, part of the team.”
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Vancouver Canadians manager Brent Lavallee insists he’s ready for renovations.
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The 37-year-old from North Delta is back for a third straight season at the helm of the Toronto Blue Jays’ high-A farm team based out of Nat Bailey Stadium.
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Vancouver hosts the UBC Thunderbirds in an exhibition game Wednesday (6:35 p.m.) at The Nat. The reigning Northwest League champions open the regular season for their six-team loop on the road Friday against the Spokane Indians, and then have their own home-opener next Tuesday against the Hillsboro Hops.
The Nat is already getting a new look, undergoing upgrades resulting from the enhanced facility standards that came out of MLB remaking the minor leagues during the COVID-19 shutdown.
The C’s already have a temporary clubhouse in the parking lot on the third base side. Work is beginning on that section of the ballpark, and the plan calls for a building housing the likes of batting cages, a weight room and a dining hall to be constructed down the first base side where the fan barbecue area currently sits. There’s no timeline yet for completion.
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Lavallee doesn’t seem the least bit fazed by the idea that workers will be in and out and all about the ballpark this summer.
“It doesn’t bother us,” he said. “Part of the family, part of the team. The more the merrier. The clubhouse is no big deal. It’s just another thing that we are training ourselves as a staff and players to roll with.
“We’re looking forward to those upgrades when they are finished.”
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Lavallee is the first manager since Toronto took over as Vancouver’s parent club in 2011 to be assigned to the C’s for three straight seasons — Clayton McCullough (2012-13) and John Schneider (2014-15) both did two-year turns — and the team has been successful under his watch already, with last year’s championship following the Cs making the league final in his rookie campaign.
The C’s are 144-116 in his two regular seasons at the helm.
The two managers on the teams ahead of the C’s on Toronto’s development ladder — the triple-A Buffalo Bisons and the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats — had managers Casey Candaele and Cesar Martin, respectively, return for fourth straight seasons, so it’s not like jobs running teams above Vancouver suddenly opened. And Lavallee didn’t seem fazed by that fact either.
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“Sometimes the ladder for staff doesn’t always point upwards,” he said. “It’s go where your skills are best utilized and you can make the best impact. Myself and the other staff members don’t see going to double-A as a promotion or going to single-A as a demotion. It’s wherever you can be utilized the best and help these players get to the big leagues.”
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The C’s do have a prominent staff change this off-season as longtime president Andy Dunn stepped down in March. Dunn had signed on with the team as a consultant in 2007 and had been instrumental in moulding fan experience at The Nat. General manager Allan Bailey, vice-president of sales and marketing Walter Cosman, and assistant general manager Stephani Ellis will be counted on to lead the staff, according to a news release from the team on Dunn’s departure.
“I know what he’s done for baseball in Vancouver and baseball in B.C., Canada even. We probably wouldn’t be standing here without him and the work that him and his crew did,” Lavallee said. “I know he raised up good people to take over for him and that’s kind of all of our jobs in sports. So we’re very confident with the people he left behind and what they’re ready for and hopefully not a big, big change for us.
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“I will miss seeing Andy sitting over there behind home plate and having him coming into the clubhouse and all that.”
The C’s haven’t released a full roster yet. The players that Lavallee spoke about as starting the season with Vancouver included centre-fielder Dasan Brown, 22, the Jays’ 2019 third-round pick out of the high-school ranks in Oakville, Ont., who has hit . 240, with nine homers, 50 runs batted in and 37 steals in 148 games with Vancouver over parts of two seasons.
There’s also shortstop Nick Goodwin, 22, who was a seventh-round pick last summer by the Jays out of Kansas State University who got into five regular-season games and three playoff ones with Vancouver after being promoted from single-A Dunedin.
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