The Blue Jays now have over half of their payroll on the Disabled List

After placing Francisco Liriano on the Disabled List Thursday afternoon with shoulder inflammation, the Blue Jays now have an astounding $85.81 million on the shelf. Here’s the breakdown:

Russell Martin: $20 million

Troy Tulowitzki: $20 million

Josh Donaldson: $17 million

Francisco Liriano: $13.66 million

J.A. Happ: $13 million

Bo Schultz: $543,000

Dalton Pompey: $539,000

Aaron Sanchez: $535,000

Glenn Sparkman: $535,000

In addition to this, Kendrys Morales is currently nursing a hamstring injury and hoping to avoid the DL. If he’s deactivated before Sunday when Aaron Sanchez is due back, it would add another $10 million to the sidelined payroll figure. Either way, the Blue Jays have already been operating without his services for the last couple of days.

With an Opening Day payroll at $163.3 million, Toronto is now operating with over half of their payroll on the Disabled List.

Four of these players are only making league minimum, and guys like Schultz and Sparkman didn’t figure to be huge pieces going into the season, but everyone else sidelined on that list really leaves the Blue Jays at a disadvantage.

There is one silver lining here though. Other than Schultz, none of these injuries are currently projected to be season ending. Sanchez and Tulo are due back in days, Martin could follow soon after, and pretty much everybody else is progressing towards a time table.

In other words, if the Jays can hang around until most of these guys get back, a big hot streak is still possible.