TORONTO -- Add another name to the list. Tuesday, it’s Addison Barger headed to the IL, another day of bad news for the Blue Jays.
Barger actually injured both of his ankles on the same play over the weekend in Chicago, but it’s a left ankle sprain that lands him on the IL. Barger is the headliner Tuesday and the “new” injury to focus on, but these days, there tends to be a list.
Each day, manager John Schneider meets with the media around 4 p.m. ET. On good days, Schneider can lean back in his chair and wait for the questions to come. On bad days, like too many of these recent days, Schneider sits down and starts the session himself.
“Off the top, injury updates. I feel like this is a broken record,” Schneider said.
On top of Barger’s IL stint, catcher Alejandro Kirk had surgery Tuesday to repair a fractured left thumb, which was also dislocated when he injured himself last weekend in Chicago. Kirk had a screw placed in his thumb during the procedure, and with an initial timeline of six weeks for Kirk to return, we could be looking at a date close to the end of May before we see Kirk again.
That wasn’t even the lone surgery update of the day. Cody Ponce, who sprained his right ACL in his season debut, will undergo surgery next Wednesday and is expected to miss about six months. The Blue Jays will hold out hope that they can play deep into October and give Ponce a shot, but they’ll need to plan for the rest of 2026 while assuming Ponce’s season is done. This news comes on top of Trey Yesavage, José Berríos and Shane Bieber already being on the IL and Max Scherzer cutting Monday’s start against the Dodgers short with forearm tendinitis.
At this point, Blue Jays fans are losing track of body parts. Their IL is starting to look like a roster of its own.
“Getting kicked right in the [groin] right now is not ideal 10 games in, but I wear a cup every day,” Schneider said. “It’s going to happen. If I’m not dealing with it great, the guys aren’t dealing with it great. The minute you start thinking about that is when you go downhill. Baseball is going to happen and ups and downs are going to happen. Every single team is going to deal with it at some point. You never know when that’s going to be. You never predict it to be this early.”
Barger is the news of the day, though, and still looked noticeably uncomfortable while walking around Tuesday. Barger was off to a poor start at the plate, but the Blue Jays were bullish on him rounding the corner and he represents some of the biggest upside on this roster, which makes this even more frustrating for a team already dealing with too many injuries. In his place, the recently acquired Tyler Fitzgerald will get some opportunities to hit lefties.
Right now, it’s Schneider’s job to be overly optimistic, and it’s a role he plays very well.
On top of the injuries, the Blue Jays had a nasty flu bug rip through their clubhouse over the past week. When it rains, it pours.
“We’ve got to not worry about the injury bug or the flu bug. We’ve got to worry about the baseball bug right now,” Schneider said.
Soon, the good news should begin to balance out the bad. Yesavage could be within one or two starts of returning and Berrios could be a couple of weeks behind. The Blue Jays are hopeful that Barger’s stint on the 10-day IL is a minimum stint, too, and in the meantime, this club needs a few heroes to step up and keep the ship afloat.