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TORONTO — The ink is drying, and all of the paperwork is now in place for Major League Baseball’s return next month, starting with players reporting to training camps in exactly one week.

Where things go from there will be dictated by the virus that put us in this position in the first place and MLB’s overall appetite for risk once the positive COVID-19 cases start rolling in.

And they will.

We saw that start Wednesday when several Toronto Blue Jays players and staff in Dunedin tested positive, stemming from a symptom scare last week that shut down their Florida facility and forced MLB to close all training camps while they underwent a deep cleaning.

But with players satisfied enough with both the league’s many written protocols as well as their stated desire to keep the focus on health and safety, the sport is trending towards a July 23 or 24 opening day.

A lot has changed since March.

The landscape of a 60-game season has dramatically altered expectations and maybe even strategies across the entire league.

Executives haven’t had much to do other than sit around and brainstorm, so no stone should’ve gone unturned when it comes to creatively thinking about roster scenarios and how to morph organizations built to run marathons into teams ready to sprint.

The Blue Jays are no different.

In March, there was an air of excitement that the rebuild was over and the Jays’ young core was ready to start a slow march back to the top of the AL East.

It wasn’t going to happen this year.

Now? Things are different.

Anything can happen in a two-month season, and while expanded playoffs would have helped the Jays immensely, there’s enough high-end talent on the roster to envision things clicking and providing, at the very least, a ton of short-season entertainment.

Are they a contender? No. Could they contend? Very much so.

Let’s tackle 10 important questions and go through some of the nuances of this virus-shortened 2020 campaign.

1. Where will the Jays play?

The million-dollar question as of today.

With the border being an issue and the Canadian federal government’s 14-day quarantine rule still in place, the Jays will start spring training 2.0 next week at their Dunedin facility, right in the middle of virus-infested Florida.

While the location is ideal for the Jays, the virus situation is not.

Work has been underway for a while to add lighting that would bring TD Ballpark up to standards for MLB night games — they can’t play in the sweltering heat during the day — and the team is also working to provide clubhouse spacing in order to comply with new social distancing rules.

Training in Dunedin to start would allow the Jays to easily schedule exhibition games — the prevailing thought is a week to 10 days of camp and then a week to 10 days of games, but an exhibition schedule hasn’t been announced — in the area.

Contingency plans including sharing nearby Tropicana Field with the Tampa Bay Rays or another minor-league ballpark — Buffalo, perhaps — if the virus is deemed to be too dangerous.

In its health and safety protocols, MLB reserves the right to relocate a team to a neutral site. It also outlines that the “vast majority” of teams will be playing out of their home ballparks, including spring training 2.0.

Regular-season games in Toronto have not been ruled out as the Blue Jays have been in touch with both the federal and provincial governments, and team president Mark Shapiro is expected to address the media in the next few days once details are finalized with the league.

A lot can change between now and the projected opening day of July 23 or 24.

2. Who will the Jays play?

The 60-game schedule will, as expected, be division-heavy as MLB tries to limit travel throughout the U.S.

The Jays will play their division rivals — the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and Orioles — 10 times apiece for a total of 40 games.

The other 20 games will be against the National League East, with each team playing their “natural rival” six times.

Since the Jays are in a split rivalry — the Braves in odd-numbered years and the Phillies in even-numbered — they’re expected to get Philadelphia for six games, with the remaining 14 games split up between the Mets, Nationals, Braves and Marlins.

The tentative schedule currently does not include double-headers.

If you’re looking for a reason the Jays won’t be contenders, the schedule is it. It’s tough sledding.

Last year, nine teams in baseball won 93-plus games and the Jays will have to play four of them almost 30 times.

The Marlins and Orioles are still around to even that out a bit, but the Jays going to be facing seven veteran clubs with legit postseason aspirations.

3. What should Blue Jays’ goal be in 60-game sprint?

To be all-in.

All of the chips should be pushed into the centre of the table.

Even though there will be many teams with better odds at the outset, absolutely anything can happen in 60 games.

The start will be absolutely critical and any team starting hot will immediately see their post season odds increase exponentially.

Same thing the other way.

It’s baseball. 

Despite being loaded with talent, there’s no guarantee the favourites will start well after a quick three-week training camp and so much uncertainty away from the ballpark.

The Jays are a team loaded with youth and upside right now, and the usual hallmark of a team built like them is inconsistency.

That inconsistency comes in the form of scorching-hot stretches and ice-cold dips that no young player can avoid.

What if Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. are locked in for the first 20 games and the rebuilt pitching staff is good enough to keep them in games?

It’s not something you can expect to happen, but you can’t rule it out, either.

The catch is almost every team in baseball can say the same thing.

4. Will Nate Pearson start the season in the rotation?

Being all-in also means putting your best 30 players on the roster from Day 1.

Nate Pearson without a doubt is one of them.

Back in March, it was obvious the big, 23-year-old right-hander was destined to start in Triple-A as a way of getting a bit more seasoning as well as delaying starting his service clock until May or June to gain an extra year of team control in 2026.

It made sense when there was a minor-league system to develop guys in and service time manipulation is nothing new, as we saw with Guerrero Jr. a year ago.

But things have changed.

Pearson can be a huge factor from the start, with no innings limit looming and the allure of potentially being able to contend.

Service time is expected to be pro-rated over 66 days — if you’re up for 33 days, that would count as half of the usual 187-day season for service time purposes — but with no Triple-A squad to send Pearson to, it’s going to be blatantly obvious what they’re doing.

He’s arguably their second-best starter behind Hyun-Jin Ryu, and inarguably one of their best five.

If you thought the owners and MLBPA clashing over money during a pandemic was a bad look for the sport, wait until teams start keeping young players from starting to make a real living next month, even if it might only be a couple weeks.

5. What will the rest of the roster and pitching staff look like?

For the first two weeks of the season, clubs will carry 30 players.

On the 15th day, they’ll have to pare that down to 28 players, and then to the normal 26-man roster two weeks after that.

Pitchers were supposed to be capped at 13, but that rule has been waived for 2020, paving the way for 16- or 17-man pitching staffs to begin the season.

With so little ramp up time for starters and the potential for injuries, all of the extra arms will be needed and pitching staff creativity is going to be the norm.

Yes, that means openers.

With no minor league system, teams will all carry a pool of 60 players that they have to name by this Sunday.

A chunk of that 60-man player pool will be designated as a taxi squad and assigned to an alternate site not at the team’s home ballpark.

6. How will COVID-19 testing work?

There will be three phases of screening for players without symptoms: pre-screening, arrival screening, and regular monitoring.

This includes all players, staff and other individuals around the team regularly.

Anyone running a fever or showing symptoms won’t be allowed in the ballpark and will be ordered to self-isolate.

Anyone developing symptoms at the ballpark will immediately self-isolate and testing will be done, followed by tracing that individual’s steps through the facility.

According to the 101-page document, players, coaches and support staff will be tested for COVID-19 every other day during spring training, the regular season and postseason, while players will receive temperature/symptom checks twice per day and anti-body testing will be conducted once per month.

Every club will have its own detailed COVID-19 plan specific to their area with local housing options and health contact info available.

7. What happens when players test positive for COVID-19?

The league is expected to institute a COVID-19 injured list, according to reports, and players will be replaced on rosters as needed.

There is no public outline currently for what would happen if there’s a large-scale outbreak on a team.

Once a player tests positive, there will be a number of testing steps and checkpoints to ensure that player is healthy when he returns to the team setting.

8. What new on-field changes will we see?

The DH is finally in both leagues, so Jays pitchers won’t have to worry about picking up a bat when they’re playing NL East teams.

The biggest change will be in extra innings.

In each half-inning following the ninth, a runner — the last out of the previous inning — will start on second base.

It’s all in an effort to speed up the pace of games, and it won’t be totally foreign to many players since it’s been used in the minor leagues for the past two years, to mixed reviews.

The pitcher would not be charged with an earned run if the runner on second ends up scoring.

9. Can the Jays trade pending free-agent Ken Giles?

The answer is yes.

There will be a trade deadline on Aug. 31, ahead of the 66-day regular season wrapping up on Sept. 27.

Will they trade their closer in the middle of a pandemic?

That answer will obviously involve where they are in the standings at that time, but Giles, a pending free agent at the end of the season, was long seen by the Jays’ front office as a valuable trade chip they’d be able to cash in this summer.

It’s impossible to say how busy the trade deadline will be, but it’s going to happen, and contenders will have the opportunity to improve their rosters for the stretch drive.

Asking families to move during a pandemic could be a tough ask, but there would likely be

consultation with the player and the chance to win a ring could trump those potential concerns by then.

That current transaction freeze teams have been under since March? It ends this Friday at noon ET.

10. What are some of the more unique COVID-19 rules?

- Spitting, sunflower seeds and smokeless tobacco is prohibited under the new health and safety protocols, outlined in a 101-page document.

- Everyone “must avoid” high-fives, hugs and fist-bumps.

-Players showering is “discouraged but not prohibited.”

- Pitchers are not allowed to lick their fingers and will have to bring their own rosin bag to the mound.

- Hitters will have to bring their own pine tar and bat donuts to and from the on-deck circle. They’ll also now have to retrieve their own glove and hat from the dugout after grounding out to end an inning.

- No pre-game exchange of lineup cards.

- Non-playing personnel will wear masks in the dugouts and bullpens at all times.

- A bat will be thrown out once it has been touched by multiple players.

- ­­Fights are strictly prohibited.​