The next-man-up approach is keeping the Blue Jays from sliding down the standings

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This article was published 16/04/2021 (1669 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Blue Jays entered spring training with one of their deepest rosters in recent memory. They were built to withstand some of the inevitable injuries that would soon follow, but whether they will be able to survive upwards of 10 or more remains to be seen.

Toronto’s roster has been decimated in recent weeks by a series of setbacks. The medical report is starting to become so long that it could field its own team and every day seems to find the Jays dealing with another round of ailments. Strained obliques, sore quads, wonky elbows, even a positive COVID-19 test, the list goes on and on.

The news was bad enough in spring training when George Springer, Kirby Yates, Nate Pearson, Robbie Ray and Thomas Hatch all went down. The situation became even more dire once the real games started with Teoscar Hernandez, Tyler Chatwood, Julian Merryweather and David Phelps unavailable for various reasons. Then came Thursday’s news that reliever Jordan Romano and starter Ross Stripling were headed for the injured list.

The Jays, whose game Friday in Kansas City was postponed because of rain, currently have a 6-7 record, which is good enough for second place in the American League East despite the poor health. They have almost as many players on the injured list (10) as games played, and Cavan Biggio’s situation remains uncertain after he took a line drive off his right hand during Thursday’s 7-5 loss to the Royals.

If this trend continues, the Jays are eventually going to run out of major-league-calibre players, but so far they’ve managed to keep their heads above water. Rookie Josh Palacios has stepped up in the outfield, Steven Matz has gotten off to a strong start in the rotation and almost everyone in the bullpen is throwing the ball well. Even better, star players Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Hyun-Jin Ryu have been immune to the club’s string of bad luck.

For now, the Blue Jays are simply adopting a next-man-up mentality whenever someone new goes down. Joe Panik may be pressed into more playing time while it will be up to the likes of Joel Payamps, Anthony Castro and Trent Thornton to cover off some valuable middle innings before handing things over to the high-leverage arms of Rafael Dolis, Tim Mayza and Ryan Borucki.

“You can never have enough (depth),” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said after his team’s last game. “It’s funny how baseball works. That’s why it’s always good to have a lot of pitchers. But that’s how it goes and there’s not going to be any excuses. We just took two out of three from the Yankees even though everybody is getting hurt. We almost came back (Thursday). I believe we have enough. We have enough to win and hang in there until everybody gets healthy. It’s part of the game.”

Whenever the Jays go through a lot of injuries during a short period of time, there always seems to be a large chunk of the fan base that starts pointing fingers. It happened in 2012 when three-fifths of the starting staff went down one turn through the rotation. It happened again the following year when a team with post-season aspirations lost Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson and a slew of star players early in the year. It was present again during the latter stages of Josh Donaldson’s, Troy Tulowitzki’s and Aaron Sanchez’s tenures with the team.

The question everybody wants answered is how could this happen? Especially to an organization that trumpeted its high-performance department and recently unveiled its new state-of-the-art training complex in Dunedin, Fla. Social media is littered with trolls demanding someone take the fall for what should have been a preventable situation.

But while it’s true the Jays are dealing with more injuries than most, the situation isn’t that far out of line with other organizations. As of late Friday, their 10 injured players trailed the Houston Astros (12), San Diego Padres (11) and Texas Rangers (11). Tampa Bay was tied with the Jays.

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More than half the league has at least six players on the IL and that number will probably only increase. It’s an unfortunate reality that a lot of baseball insiders were predicting after last year’s abbreviated schedule disrupted everyone’s training routines. Of course, that’s just a theory and one that is hard to prove because there isn’t much information available about operating during a global pandemic.

“Maybe, I couldn’t tell you, but maybe, who knows?” Montoyo said when asked if last year’s shortened season is playing a role in the injuries. “It’s all over baseball. Everybody is getting hurt throwing, arms, and everything. Maybe that has something to do with it.”

The Jays might not be thriving, but they’re doing enough to get by. Guerrero has been among the best performers in baseball with a .413 average and 1.200 OPS to go along with three homers and 10 RBIs. Bichette isn’t far behind with a .303/.345/.604 slash line. Ryu and Matz have combined to allow just six runs across 31 1/3 innings while the bullpen ranks third in the majors with a 2.09 ERA.

The important thing is that the injuries haven’t saddled the Jays with a large deficit in the standings that will be tough to be overcome. They’re hanging around. And right now it’s all about survival.

Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca