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DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Blue Jays hope to have grass growing in the Rogers Centre by opening day 2018. That may be too late for Jose Reyes.

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DUNEDIN, Fla. — At 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dalton Pompey was sitting in an empty locker, resting his butt on the bottom shelf as he talked quietly with Devon Travis at the adjacent cubicle. It was crunch time. Each was waiting for a summons to the manager’s office.

Pompey, the Canadian, and Travis, the Floridian, had formed a fast friendship when they met in June 2013 as teammates at the Midwest League All-Star Game in Dayton, Ohio.

“I just liked him a lot,” Travis recalled. “I thought he was going to be a really good player. He was really young then. I kept in touch with him ever since. Whenever he’d struggle or something was going on, I’d always shoot him a text and say, ‘Hey, keep going. You’re gonna be all right.’ ”