TORONTO -- The Blue Jays have a laundry list of injuries, but the good news is that all of the affected players appear to be making solid progress.
The team's head athletic trainer, George Poulis, met with the media Wednesday afternoon to provide updates on all of the club's injured players. Here are the highlights of what he had to say:
2B Devon Travis (15-day DL, offseason left shoulder surgery):
Poulis: "He's going to get some live at-bats with the extended team down in Florida on Friday. Big step for him, he's very excited, he's doing great, and we're very optimistic, but no timeline right now on his return. We're just going day by day, step by step.
"When you have something like that, it continues to heal even when you're playing. We're just trying to acclimate him and condition him to withstand all of the stress that he's going to put on his shoulder ... He won't play in the field right now. We'll mix that in, as well, but right now he's just going to get some at-bats."
LHP Franklin Morales (15-day DL, left shoulder fatigue):
Poulis: "Franklin has been throwing long toss, feeling really good, and he is getting ready to throw off the mound. Once he throws off the mound, we'll just continue with his throwing program, and we're very optimistic that he'll feel good and progress well ... We're still getting the programs set together, so no timeline right now, but I would say in the next few days [he'll throw off a mound] for sure."
LHP Aaron Loup (15-day DL, strained flexor tendon in left elbow):
Poulis: "Loupy is going to be throwing a bullpen, I believe this coming Monday. He's doing great, long toss is going great. I just talked to him actually again, and he's really excited to get going, get back here and get us going.
"There's still always concern [initially]. You get the MRI, you check out all the structures in there, and you just make sure they're structurally they're good, and you build him up from there. He's really come back nicely from that."
RHP Bo Schultz (15-day DL, offseason hip surgery):
Poulis: "He's going to start his rehab assignment Thursday with the Dunedin team down in Florida. He starts tomorrow, really happy about that, Bo's excited to get going too so we're very optimistic on that one as well."
C Russell Martin (neck spasms, returned to lineup Wednesday):
Poulis: "He's a guy that does not want to be out of the lineup. So, for us to have him not play, he probably could have played [Tuesday] but there was a conversation there, 'Hey we're ahead of it now.' R.A. Dickey was pitching, Josh [Thole] normally catches him, so it kind of worked out perfectly. He's ready to go today, and we'll continue to treat him as well."
3B Josh Donaldson (sore left thigh, returned to 3B Wednesday):
Poulis: "He got hit by a pitch and right where he got hit is right where that hamstring muscle is. That causes the whole leg to tighten up. Josh probably could have played through it, but we wanted take precaution just to make sure, because it's a long season. DHing him really helped that process."
LF Michael Saunders (lingering hamstring soreness, in lineup Wednesday):
Poulis: "Daily, day in and day out, this is a full-team approach from the strength staff, nutrition staff, medical staff. We're just all attacking him each day, doing constant treatments each day to keep his range of motion good, his strength good, and making sure he's not over-extended himself. That's pretty much what we do on every single guy."