DUNEDIN, FLA.—Alex Anthopoulos knew he couldn’t trade away the underlying problem Yunel Escobar exposed in his eyeblack last season.

Escobar was just a symptom, not the disease, and even though the former shortstop was dealt this offseason, the Blue Jays remained intent on tackling homophobia in their clubhouse.

“We made a commitment, we gave our word and we were going to follow through on it whether Yunel was here or not,” Anthopoulos said.

On Friday, Patrick Burke — brother to the late Brendan Burke and co-founder of the You Can Play project — will address the Blue Jays at their spring-training home to talk about the sting of anti-gay slurs in the hope of eliminating homophobic language from the Jays’ clubhouse.

Burke, son of the former Maple Leafs’ GM, will be joined by Jose Estevez, a Spanish-speaking openly gay athlete who volunteers for You Can Play.

It was Estevez who met with Escobar last season after the Cuban shortstop took the field at the Rogers Centre with the words “tu ere maricon” written into his eyeblack. The phrase roughly translates to “you’re a fag.”

Escobar was suspended by the Jays for three games , and as part of his discipline was required to meet with Estevez and make a donation to You Can Play.

But Burke said neither he nor Anthopoulos wanted to “whitewash” the Escobar incident with a quick one-off meeting. Hence Friday’s chance to address the entire team. Burke and Estevez will also meet with the organization’s minor-league players on Saturday.

“The biggest confusion I think for most professional athletes centres around their language,” Burke said this week.

Case in point: when Escobar was forced to explain why he wrote the slur under his eyes he said he meant it as a joke, not an insult.

“One of our biggest priorities going in is letting them know that for gay teammates and gay fans, it’s not just a word; it’s a sign you don’t respect them, it’s a sign that you won’t accept them and it’s a sign that in your eyes you don’t see them as equal.”

Most pro athletes are not exposed to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (LGBT) community, Burke said, adding that he and Estevez humanize the issue with their personal stories.

Burke started You Can Play to carry on the legacy of his brother, who was killed in a car accident in 2010. Brendan Burke was a student athlete and team manager at the Miami University in Ohio who came out in 2009 and became an outspoken advocate for greater tolerance for LGBT athletes.

You Can Play has grown considerably in just a few years, and is now affiliated with dozens of professional and collegiate teams across North America, including the Toronto Marlies and Toronto FC.

The Jays would be the first baseball team to join with You Can Play, but several MLB teams have made videos for the It Gets Better campaign, which has a similar mandate.

Burke, a scout for the Philadelphia Flyers, said he speaks to the players in their own language, without any “academic” or “flowery” pretense. “It’s ‘Hey, this is what it’s like to be a gay guy in your room.’”

He admits there is an “emotional toll” in continuously retelling his brother’s story, but he says it’s an important part of getting the message across.

“The story doesn’t get easier; it doesn’t change; I don’t miss him any less. But you just put your head down and deal with it.”

There are no plans yet for Jays’ players to participate in a You Can Play video, one of the main ways the organization gets its message out. Burke said he wanted to get Friday’s educational meeting out of the way first to gauge interest.

“I anticipate that if we have success in the room it’s something we would think about doing.”

The players will be given a chance to ask Burke and Estevez any questions they have in a judgment-free setting. “They can ask us anything and we won’t give them any BS answers.”

Anthopoulos praised Burke’s approach and his ability to relate to the players. “He doesn’t come in and preach; he just explains.”

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The 35-year-old GM said last year’s incident with Escobar “opened up his eyes” to the issue.

“It opened up our eyes as an organization, too. The unfortunate part is that it took that incident to do it. We don’t realize the way the word ‘gay’ is used and people think it’s innocent and it isn’t.”

Correction: A previous version of this article mistakenly said Brendan Burke attended the University of Miami.

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