Varsho exits game (knee discomfort) amid Blue Jays' growing injury concerns

PHOENIX -- Daulton Varsho was removed from Friday night’s game with left knee discomfort, another dose of bad news to a roster that can barely handle any more.

Varsho was removed between the top and bottom of the third inning, but it wasn’t initially clear when or how Varsho injured his knee. He struck out looking in his lone plate appearance in the first inning, but didn’t show any pain on either of his swings in that at-bat.

“It’s kind of in his quad, down into his knee,” John Schneider said. “He told me right before the game that it was bothering him a bit. We just wanted to be extra careful. He got checked out. No MRI or anything, just day to day, so that’s a good thing. We’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

It feels like we’re already wearing out the idea of “the timing couldn’t be worse” by April 17, but there are layers to this.

Varsho came into this series with three home runs in his last six games, finally recapturing the momentum he’d built in Spring Training heading into a contract year. It’s been particularly valuable to have that emerge in a time when the Blue Jays are without George Springer, Addison Barger and Alejandro Kirk, too, as this lineup searches for any sort of insulation around Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the heart of the lineup.

If Varsho is to miss any amount of time, Myles Straw would step right in as the everyday center fielder, something the Blue Jays are fully comfortable with. This could also keep the window open for Nathan Lukes, who is now 1-for-24 in the month of April after finally sneaking a single through the infield in the eighth.

John Schneider said prior to Friday’s game that Lukes is “grinding physically”, but didn’t want to elaborate much more. He called it “baseball stuff”, which is Schneider’s way of saying that Lukes doesn’t have a major injury worthy of time on the IL, but he isn’t quite 100%, either. If Varsho misses time, though, Lukes’ ability to play center is valuable. He started 27 games in center last season, mostly while Varsho was on the IL.

Given how many players are already on the IL, though, the Blue Jays’ options beyond that are growing thinner. Jonatan Clase is the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster, but guess what? He’s on the IL in the Minor Leagues, too.

Tyler Fitzgerald could be an option to bounce back up from Triple-A. He wasn’t used in his first brief stint with the Blue Jays, largely due to the overlap between he and Davis Schneider’s skill sets, but the circumstances have changed. In Triple-A, the Blue Jays also have a group of top prospects to choose from in Yohendrick Pinango (No. 10), Josh Kasevich (No. 13), RJ Schreck (No. 9) and Charles McAdoo (No. 26).