The Jays’ George Springer is day to day with a knee injury, and Corey Dickerson is day to day with the leadoff spot

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This article was published 08/09/2021 (1506 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Blue Jays hope to get George Springer back into the lineup soon but, by the sounds of it, he won’t be close to 100 per cent whenever that happens.

Springer has missed the last two games of the crucial series against the New York Yankees with what the Jays are calling a left knee contusion. The soreness is in the same knee Springer sprained in August and caused him to miss two weeks on the injured list.

The latest injury happened Monday afternoon when Springer fouled a ball off his knee and eventually had to be removed from the game. The 31-year-old was wearing a brace as protection, but the ball hit an area that wasn’t padded and caused another setback.

Jays manager Charlie Montoyo doesn’t believe Springer will be out of action for long, but that’s only because there appears to be some willingness to play through pain. If both sides were adamant about waiting for him to be fully healthy before coming back, it’s possible he wouldn’t return at all in 2021.

“He’s going to be sore the whole time he plays, that’s a fact,” Montoyo told reporters in New York earlier this week. “It’s just how he deals with it. And of course we’re going to communicate with him every day and after the games.”

Springer was noticeably hobbled even before Monday’s incident. There have been multiple times when he was seen favouring his left leg while running the bases and it occasionally appeared to be causing discomfort in the batter’s box as well. Since returning Aug. 30, Springer has just five hits in 26 at-bats for a .192 average.

With less than four weeks to go, the Jays will take any version of Springer they can get, as long as the training staff agrees he’s not putting himself at high risk of a more serious injury by doing so. There are games to make up in the standings and not much time left to make it happen. When he can be out there, he will be.

In the meantime, the Jays must survive without him, and for each of the last two games it was outfielder Corey Dickerson who got the start in centre and hit leadoff. It might seem like an unconventional pick over someone like Marcus Semien but Montoyo prioritized continuity over wide-scale changes.

By inserting Dickerson at the top, it allowed the Jays to follow with Semien, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Teoscar Hernandez in their regular spots. Considering the recent run against Oakland and a pair of victories to open the series in the Bronx, Montoyo didn’t want to mess with what was working. Swapping Springer for Dickerson was the cleanest fix.

“I didn’t want to change all the lineup, because we’ve been doing so good,” said Montoyo, whose team entered play Wednesday with 47 runs over six games. “So that’s why I put Dickerson in the leadoff spot, Dickerson is a pretty good hitter, and he’s going to give you good at-bats, but I didn’t want to change (everything), just one guy.”

If Springer’s injury ends up forcing him to miss a few more games, Montoyo could get a little creative. Dickerson makes sense as the leadoff man against righties, as was the case Wednesday night with Luis Gil on the mound for New York, but the Yankees are using lefty Nestor Cortes Jr. in Thursday’s series finale and for that one either Lourdes Gurriel Jr. or Alejandro Kirk should be in the mix.

Kirk might seem like bizarre pick because his notoriously slow foot speed, but he also puts up good at-bats, works a lot of deep counts and putting him there would avoid messing with Gurriel, who through Tuesday had a .306 average and an .877 OPS since the all-star break while hitting lower in the lineup.

There are decent options for the top spot, just none of them preferred. What the Jays really want is to have Springer back. The three-time all-star won’t resume playing on one leg, but one and a half might be enough to get through the final stretch. He’s tried to grind it out and it’s pretty evident he intends on trying to do it again. An extended break would be easier on his body, but there will be time for that later.

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The news appears to be slightly better on Jays ace Hyun-Jin Ryu, who left Monday’s game after 80 pitches because of arm soreness. The discomfort didn’t impact Ryu’s effectiveness across six scoreless innings in the series opener, but it was enough to force his departure a bit earlier than expected.

The following day, Montoyo said all was well and that Ryu remained on track to make his next start as part of Saturday’s doubleheader in Baltimore. The other start likely would go to either the rehabbing Ross Stripling or Triple-A Bisons right-hander Thomas Hatch.

Injuries have defined much of this Jays season, and they’ll factor into how well this team does down the stretch as well. There isn’t much hope for a completely healthy Springer any time soon, but a banged-up Springer starting at designated hitter is better than not having him at all.

It’s crunch time and the Jays need all the quality at-bats they can get. Missing Springer for a couple games isn’t the end of the world, missing him for a couple weeks might be. For now, Springer’s day to day, just like the nerves of a loyal fan base that’s keeping one eye on the Jays and another on the out-of-town scoreboard.

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