The George Springer mantra is simple — ‘I want to play,’ the Blue Jays star says

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/05/2021 (1975 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If he said it once, he said it half a dozen times.

Actually, he did say it precisely half a dozen times.

“I want to play.”

It’s the George Springer mantra. Or, in the so very recent past tense, “I wanted to play.”

Perhaps there was a strategic reason for the Blue Jays to trot their briefly game-used superstar out for Zoom duty on Friday afternoon. Take some of the heat off the organization for perchance mishandling their precious asset, who made his regular-season debut in blue and white last Wednesday and hit two home runs on Saturday. Heaven knows the club has been taking a licking in the court of public opinion for prematurely reactivating the 31-year-year from the double whammy of a strained oblique followed by a strained quad.

Players never talk to reporters when they’re on the injured list.

But of course this was also Springer’s poignant return to his field of glory in Houston, where he racked up so much career magnificence before signing with Toronto in January. Thus the Houston media’s eagerness to pick his brain, to shake out his emotions.

Had the stars aligned properly, loving fans would have lustily cheered his appearance on the field, regardless of enemy uniform. And they did greet him warmly, as did former teammates. But the stars have not shone upon Stringer with favour. He has been sucked into a black hole of injury, what feels like a never-ending saga five weeks into the campaign, a Groundhog Day of staggered recuperation.

Starting at the designated hitter, turns out, wasn’t the cautious segue toward baseball resumption, as envisioned.

The Jays got it wrong. Springer got it wrong. The quad was re-aggravated in a Saturday at-bat, with Springer grabbing his thigh after his cleat got caught leaving the box on a groundout, though he stayed in the game, contributing that brace of long balls in Toronto’s 10th-inning walk-off win over Atlanta. He started on Sunday but pulled himself after his third at-bat — attributed by the manager to leg fatigue — and spoke no words since.

Until Friday. And then the frustration was carved deep, just the goddamn of it all.

“I wanted to be out there with the team. I wanted to contribute in any way that I can. I tried to be smart. I tried to do everything in my power to control it. But at the end of the day, you can’t control things that you can’t control. I’m not trying to hurt myself. I felt good. I thought I was ready to go, to help this team. Obviously that didn’t work out the way it wanted it to.

“So now it’s about getting back at it and getting back out there. But most importantly, staying back out there.”

Soft tissue injuries are difficult to assess, despite the repeat MRIs and the plethora of advanced analytical measurement available these days — isometric strength testing, speed testing, GPS monitoring. Springer was telling the team about how he felt. Thus, there was an element of defensiveness when GM Ross Atkins spoke to reporters Thursday and confirmed that Springer was going back on the 10-day injured list, which would probably still not be long enough to recover sufficiently, to prevent any further setback.

“We leaned heavily on his reporting. Leaned heavily on his ability to assess that (Saturday) injury.” Concluded it was likely just mild cramping or a “stretching sensation,” a consequence of fatigue, although Springer wasn’t playing the outfield.

Regrets, yeah, they have a few, all ’round. But 20-20 hindsight is easy. They’re wiser now. Which, frankly, doesn’t say much for the club’s much ballyhooed high-performance department. The team has been here before, most ruinously with Josh Donaldson three years ago, rushing him onto the roster from a chronic calf ailment in time for the trade deadline. Donaldson, however, already had one foot out of the organization; Springer is a six-year keeper, as per his $150-million (U.S.) contract, linchpin for the club tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. A glimmer of that was evident by the impact he made on the lineup, at leadoff, in that big-bop game.

“There was no thought that I was going to come out of that game,” said Springer. “I was determined to stay in that game. I’m glad I did. I believed I could play through whatever. Obviously I couldn’t. And here I am.”

No, insisted Springer, he hadn’t teed up his return to ensure participation in this series with the Astros at Minute Maid Park. “It was important to play in general. I want to play for this team. That’s why I’m here obviously. And to be hurt again is not fun for me. I don’t like it. Yeah, it would be nice to play here. But for me, it was important to get back as fast as I could.”

His body had told him, hey, George, good to go. That was the primary impetus rather than all the sophisticated data. “I trust my body. I know my body. Injuries happen, it’s part of the game. It’s a part of life. It’s tough to get through. You have to keep going and keep plugging.”

Maybe one factor, as Atkins had mentioned, is that Springer has a higher pain tolerance than average. He may have pushed himself too aggressively. Hard to pull out all the threads of nuance involved in arriving at the now regrettable decision.

It certainly sounds, though, as if the Jays will not go down that detoured road again with Springer.

“Should we have taken more time?’’ Atkins asked rhetorically. “What I would tell you is that we are trying to compete and trying to win.”

They’re doing so with a gerrymandered roster and taxi quad shuttle, plagued with injuries from top to bottom, now losing Alejandro Kirk for at least a month. “If we have objective reasons to put (Springer) in the position to make our team better, then we’re always going to do that,” Atkins said. “Having said that, we’re going to continue to revisit that process with George, with our medical staff, with our coaching staff, and learn how we can improve on it. If there’s a way to be better, we want to do that.”

Yet even Friday, pre-game, manager Charlie Montoyo was asserting the call will be Springer’s to make, albeit with no DH on-ramp next time.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Head Start

Weekday Mornings

A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day.

Sign up for Head Start

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be up to him, how he does it. He knows how he feels. Of course we are going to take it slowly. We want him back but it’s going to be up to him. Whenever he says he’s ready to go, he’s going to be active. We’re going to be patient. As long as it takes.”

Springer: “I can’t give you a timeline. I know that I just have to get it right because I don’t want to get hurt again. I have to make sure that I’m 150 per cent, I guess. Whenever that is, hopefully it’ll be sooner rather than later but I have to be smart as well and make sure that I’m ready to go.

“The thing that I’ve been told by Charlie over and over again is, don’t do anything stupid, don’t do anything stupid.”

Don’t. Do. Anything. Stupid.

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno