A mild oblique strain will keep Brett Lawrie out of the WBC. That is a big loss for Team Canada. Hopefully he'll be recovered in time for opening day, but these strains don't seem to follow a time table.
Brett came out of yesterday's Team Canada game against the Reds with a 'minor twinge'. I figured it had to be more than minor for Brett to leave a game. As you know, Brett missed 30 games last year with similar injury.
Brett is going to hang around to watch Canada's game against Italy tomorrow but will be heading back to Dunedin right after, to get checked out by the Blue Jays doctors.
Thankfully, we do have almost a month until opening day, so Brett should have enough time to recover. John Gibbons said that Mark DeRosa would be his first choice to fill in for Brett. I'd much rather move MaicerIzturis over and let Emilio Bonifacio play second, but it isn't my choice.
Please be ready for opening day, Brett. Please.
Update: Jays are calling it a rib cage injury now. I'm not sure how different that is to an oblique strain, but will go along with the change.