Yimi Garcia was placed on the Blue Jays’ 15-day injured list on Saturday, as the reliever is dealing with a right shoulder impingement. Manager John Schneider provided some updates on several injured players to reporters (including Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling) today, including the news that Garcia received a cortisone shot in his ailing shoulder and will therefore be shut down from throwing for a few days while the shot takes effect. A more definitive recovery timeline won’t be in place until Garcia starts throwing, Schneider said.
Garcia hasn’t allowed an earned run in 19 of his 21 appearances in 2025, as all of his damage allowed (seven ER) came over back-to-back disastrous outings against the Guardians and Angels on May 3 and 6, respectively. He has a 3.15 ERA and an excellent 28.9% strikeout rate over 20 total innings this season, but his 12% walk rate is far beyond his career norms, and his 23.8% chase rate is well below the league average.
Even with those minor red flags, Garcia was Toronto’s top set-up option behind closer Jeff Hoffman, so losing Garcia for at least 15 days is another tough break for a Blue Jays bullpen that has been missing some key arms for all or most of the 2025 campaign. Erik Swanson has yet to pitch at all this year, due to median nerve entrapment in his right arm that surfaced during Spring Training and then some forearm soreness that interrupted the start of his minor league rehab assignment.
Fortunately, Swanson now looks ready to go, as Schneider said the reliever will get a rehab outing with Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday. Swanson was another pitcher ticketed for a set-up role this season, and he excelled in the position in 2023 and in the second half of the 2024 season, albeit only after an injury-marred first half.
The news isn’t as good for right-hander Ryan Burr, who went in for a check-up with team doctors following his Triple-A rehab appearance on Sunday. Burr is another pitcher still waiting for his 2025 debut since he was dealing with shoulder inflammation in the spring, and Burr’s shoulder was still feeling some discomfort in the wake of Sunday’s outing. More will be known soon if Burr’s soreness was anything serious, or if his rehab may be put on hold.
Nick Sandlin got his Blue Jays tenure off to a nice start when he posted a 2.25 ERA in his first eight innings with the team, before a right lat strain sent him to the 15-day IL back on April 20. With now over a month spent on the sidelines, Sandlin is on the road to recovery, as he threw a bullpen session today at the Jays’ training complex in Florida.
Turning to position players, Andres Gimenez is also down in Florida, and Schneider said Gimenez is aiming to be part of a rehab game on Wednesday. Acquired along with Sandlin in a big offseason trade with the Guardians, Gimenez drastically cooled off after a hot start, and was hitting only .195/.273/.305 over 143 plate appearances before a right quad strain sent him to the 10-day IL earlier this month. Gimenez had been the Jays’ starting second baseman, and Ernie Clement has since moved to the keystone in Gimenez’s absence, bringing Addison Barger into the picture as the regular third baseman.
Alek Manoah also provided reporters with an update on his status during the Blue Jays’ recent visit to Tampa to play the Rays, as Manoah has been rehabbing from his Tommy John surgery at the Jays’ Dunedin complex. Speaking with MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson and other media, Manoah is aiming to be back with the Jays in August, which would mark roughly a 14-month absence since he underwent his TJ procedure in June 2024.
As with any recovery from a UCL surgery, of course, this timeline is still pretty fluid. Manoah is still in the bullpen session phase of his throwing progression (with twice-weekly bullpens of more than 40 pitches), so he has a ways to go before turning to his own minor league rehab work and fully building his arm up for a starter’s workload.
Once the burgeoning ace of Toronto’s rotation, Manoah’s career has been going sideways for the better part of three years. Manoah followed up his excellent 2022 season with a miserable 2023 campaign that saw him lose his command of the strike zone and his spot on the Jays’ big league roster entirely. He seemed to be somewhat back on track when he posted a 3.70 ERA over five starts and 24 1/3 innings in 2024 before the Tommy John procedure put Manoah on the IL.
It is anyone’s guess as to how Manoah may look once he makes his return to the active roster, yet even the 2024 version would be welcomed by a Jays team in need of rotation depth. Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, and Chris Bassitt remain the top three anchors of the pitching staff, but Bowden Francis has struggled, and Max Scherzer’s own injury problems have led to a revolving door of mostly ineffective options in the fifth starter’s role.
I hope manoah isnt as cocky when he comes back, I never liked him when he was really good because he would say really stupid stuff
But also don’t wish sudden drop offs on anyone, like if rick ankiel was a bad guy I would still feel bad for him after getting the yips
I was thinking the same thing. More important than his UCL, we’re all wondering if he’s matured at all during the absence. That’s what I want to see more than anything.
Agreed. They got rid of Stroman and this guy’s attitude isn’t much better
Why wouldnt he be cocky? He got $3.1M to rehab and pitch i’m guessing 25 innings this year. Meanwhile, pitchers like Yarbrough, who was with the team last year and this spring, is pitching meaningful innings for another team for less money
Gimenez doesn’t improve this team at all, Clement can do everything Andres can do
Elite defense slightly below average offense (average for 2nd baseman) for his career
It’s just a slow start and it’s not at all like the Marcus semien situation
@sad tormented neglected mariners fan
In his past 3 seasons (near 1400 PA’s) he has an 87 wRC+, bench player numbers. Add his near 90M contract until the end of ’29 and this is a bad player on a bad contract.
Average ops for a 2nd baseman? Around .670
His average ops the past 3 seasons is about .665, 2nd basemen are just not supposed to hit
There’s very few star 2nd basemen right now especially with semien falling off
@sad tormented neglected mariners fan
Since 2023 there are 20 2B with 1000 PA’s. So full timers. 14 of those 20 have wRC+’s of over 100, average to above average players.
The best 2B over that span is Ketel Marte with a 140 wRC+. He makes 14.7M AAV. Gimenez makes nearly 20M AAV.
Bad player, bad contract
While I like the “competitive streak” in Gimenez, it looks, now, like , if Schneider, the Coach, would have done his job, we could have had Clement at 2nd, and Barger at 3rd, all along …
No saint proved while this point is wrong, but even if it wasn’t, you already have an elite defending, light bat player on the roster making next to nothing.
Heck, given Clements versatility he’s probably more valuable than Gimenez
@Floridacoach
John Schneider doesn’t determine who is on the active roster. Call ups and demotions are the purview of the GM. Barger was called up after Wagner was sent down by Atkins.
If he was the same quality defender on the other side of the bag, then you start to think of him kind of like Andrelton Simmons. You’d probably think he was still overpaid on a nine figure contract, but would still feel like an important piece to a good roster. But if he’s a 2B only player, that gets hard to manage a functioning roster around on a longer term commitment. It’s just easier to find 2B. It’s the most likely position to internally develop because it’s easier than the left side of the infield and doesn’t have as high an offensive standard as the OF or 1B. And if you have a really good rangy SS, you could prioritize a bat there and shift aid the position a little. Guys like Jorge Polanco and Brandon Lowe on moderate deals could really help a lineup but it’s easier to jump on an opportunity to acquire a guy like that if Gimenez is himself as valuable at SS as 2B.
Appears Jays have really messed up their staff, with an overworked pen and some iffy handling of the rotation per a gloomy Sun story.
Schnieder caused the injury to Garcia’s shoulder with overuse. He was throwing way to many pitches far too often.
Alek Manoah has made $10M+ to barely pitch, is gonna wind up making like $20M+ or more to have an outsized ego that he does little to nothing to justify and be on the I.L., etc. for the most part, before he unceremoniously retires.
Im jealous too.. but good for him!
Outsized body.
Usually teams will sign arb players recovering from UCL to discounted 2yr deals. In Toronto, where money is no objective, gave him his full arb value this year (and obviously next year also). Good for Manoah and his 91mph fastball
Free market value for Manoah’s one and a half good seasons would be at least $50M, so what you’re saying is he’s going to finish his career dramatically underpaid.
Which is why the owners love to draft guys whose arms won’t hold up. They get those couple of years out of a guy and then don’t have to pay him for it.
Why O Why O Why, are shapiro and his lackie still here ??
If the Jays are waiting in anticipation for Manoah’s return in August, then the season is already over.
@greg1
He’ll return in time to take Bassett’s spot after they trade him.
We’ll have to be patient until the trade deadline, but my guess is sell everyone for the nearest and highest ready prospects they can get. This BlueJays team is winning nothing as constructed. Not enough quality starting pitching depth, the same problem for 10 years of Shaprio. Plus a little light on the hitting this year even though they signed Santander which was a good move..