{"id":113881,"date":"2026-02-10T19:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=113881"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T00:21:08","slug":"a-look-at-the-blue-jays-injury-news-as-spring-training-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/10\/a-look-at-the-blue-jays-injury-news-as-spring-training-opens\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look At The Blue Jays Injury News As Spring Training Opens"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Toronto Blue Jays prepare to defend their American League crown, John Schneider opened spring training with some injury news that will have a lasting effect on the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to the media, Schneider announced that pitcher Bowden Francis<\/a> will undergo ulnar collateral ligament surgery and miss all of 2026. Anthony Santander<\/a> is set to undergo left labral shoulder surgery and will be out for five to six months. Additionally, Shane Bieber<\/a> will be delayed in camp with forearm fatigue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Out For The Season<\/b><\/h2>\n

Francis will miss the entire 2026 season. This follows a 2025 campaign where the right-handed pitcher appeared in 14 games, recording a 2\u20138 record, a 6.05 ERA, and a 1.53 WHIP across 64 innings. The team placed the 29-year-old on the injured list following a June 14th start in Philadelphia due to a right shoulder impingement, an injury that ultimately ended his season.<\/p>\n

Francis was looking to bounce back in 2026<\/a> to more of his 2024 form, a year in which he went 8-5, with a 3.30 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, and held opposing hitters to a .196 average against. Many fans remember Francis\u2019 two near no-hitters, where Francis took the bid into the ninth innings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With the surgery taking place now, Francis should return at some point during spring training 2027. If healthy, he could claim a starter\u2019s role with pending free agents Kevin Gausman<\/a>, Bieber, and Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos<\/a>, who has an opt-out clause after next season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Concerning Development\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

When the Blue Jays acquired Bieber<\/a> from the Cleveland Guardians at the 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline, the veteran right-hander was working his way back from Tommy John Surgery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bieber made his Blue Jays debut on August 22 in Miami. He went on to make six more regular-season starts. Across seven appearances, Bieber pitched to a 4-2 record, 3.57 ERA, and 1.02 WHIP in 40.1 innings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 30-year-old also pitched in five games during the playoffs. He went 2-1, with a 3.86 ERA and 1.45 WHIP. He picked up the loss in Game 7 of the World Series after allowing a home run to Will Smith<\/a> in extra innings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On November 5th, Bieber decided to exercise his $16 million player option for 2026.<\/a> He was set to return as an integral part of the Blue Jays’ rotation. With a delayed start to camp, Toronto will bring him along slowly with the hope of a fully healthy regular season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Injury-Plagued Season<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Blue Jays signed Santander<\/a> to a five-year, $92.5 million contract last offseason. Toronto hoped the former Baltimore Oriole could provide some thump to a lineup that needed it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The strategy did not go as planned. Santander appeared in only 54 games, batting .175 with six home runs and 18 RBIs across 194 at-bats. The 31-year-old was put on the IL in May with left shoulder inflammation. He didn\u2019t return until September 23rd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Santander appeared in five postseason games. He batted .200 with no home runs and two RBIs before being removed from the roster with an injury. The timeline places Santander with a chance to return around August.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The injury will clear up some of the logjam in the Blue Jays outfield. This includes George Springer<\/a>, Addison Barger<\/a>, Nathan Lukes<\/a>, Myles Straw<\/a>, Joey Loperfido<\/a>, and Davis Schneider<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

(Top Image Credit:\u00a0Brad Penner-Imagn Images)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Toronto Blue Jays prepare to defend their American League crown, John Schneider opened spring training with some injury news that will have a lasting effect on the season.\u00a0 Speaking to the media, Schneider announced that pitcher Bowden Francis will undergo ulnar collateral ligament surgery and miss all of 2026. Anthony Santander is set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5720,"featured_media":113884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,1071,35],"tags":[2824,28388,69,2094,36],"class_list":["post-113881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejays","category-featured","category-mlb","category-news","tag-anthony-santander","tag-bowden-francis","tag-mlb","tag-shane-bieber","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5720"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113881"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113890,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113881\/revisions\/113890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}