Spring training the time of year in baseball where rookies try as hard as they can to make the big club, seasoned veterans attempt to earn a spot for one more year and one more chance at a post-season dance and in the case of the Toronto Blue Jays everyone seems to get hurt.
This year’s spring training has been unique as many MLB players have been hit by the injury bug. We have seen players like Josh Reddick, Cliff Lee, Yu Darvish, Zach Wheeler and others end up on the disabled list. However, the Toronto Blue Jays are a team who has been hit particularly hard by the injury bug. The strange thing is how the Blue Jays injuries are occurring.
Six players for the Toronto Blue Jays have been injured so far this spring season, five of which were expected to be a part of the opening day roster and the other had a huge shot at making the team, that player was Ramon Santiago who suffered a broken collar bone and is expected to be out for a while. This is a potentially a season ending injury.
Arguable the most devastating injury happened to Marcus Stroman, who tore his ACL. This was shocking. The day before he was injured he had pitched a very good game, he was also expected to be the opening day starter for the team. Stroman’s injury leaves a massive hole in the rotation and we can only hope Marco Estrada, Aaron Sanchez and maybe even Jeff Francis can fill the void. How did Stroman get injured, you may ask? He was fielding bunts in a normal spring training drill.
Brett Cecil, who is slated to be the team’s closer this season, felt soreness in his in his shoulder is expected to be ready for Opening Day, but he isn’t throwing many pitches right now so he doesn’t aggravate anything. While Edwin Encarnacion a very dangerous hitter in the Jays lineup and recently he has dealt with some mysterious back pain. Weh he had an MRI, there was some swelling found and they have shut him down for a few days.
Michael Saunders tore his meniscus in his left knee and was expected to be out until the All-Star game after announcing he had to get surgery. After the surgery was completed it was announced that he would only be out for 5-6 weeks with a chance at making the opening day roster. It’s great news to hear that Saunders will return sooner than later seeing as with him out of the lineup the outfield looks thin even with the addition of Dayan Viciedo. Saunders injury was another weird one, as he hurt his knee when he tripped and fell over a sprinkler head in the Dunedin outfield.
Last, but not least we have Kevin Pillar, who might have suffered the strangest injury of all. He strained his oblique muscle sneezing, that’s right you heard me, he injured himself sneezing and will be out for a week, maybe a bit longer. That last injury is the icing on the cake for the injuries and probably the funniest, although the injuries are no laughing matter. It seems that every second day my phone vibrates and tells me another Blue Jay has been injured.
The last couple of seasons the Blue Jays have gone into spring training with high hopes and pressure to make the post season, or as they kept saying win now, and this season is no different. These injuries don’t help their case to win now, but ironically this could help the Blue Jays out. It is like all the teams from Toronto are cursed, the Raptors haven’t been winning lately and the Maple Leafs, and oh boy that’s just a disaster. Hopefully the Jays luck can turn around and everyone left can stay healthy.
If all these injuries truly start to impact the roster, then people will write off Toronto and that might help the teams psyche and maybe they will surprise everyone and finally make the post season run we have all been waiting for. This is just a theory of course, but we need something to distract us from all these weird injuries right? Stayed tuned Jays fans and pray that this weird string of injuries is over.
