Injury Roundup

It hasn’t quite reached the fever pitch of last season, but the injuries of Toronto Blue Jays players to-date in spring training is somewhat concerning. Although some of it was expected (Troy Tulowitzki), most of it wasn’t.

Here’s a list of the latest injury updates:

• Josh Donaldson is day-to-day with a calf issue, although it doesn’t seem like the injury is serious. General manager Ross Atkins said: “He just had a mild cramp in the game he exited due to dehydration. We are being conservative because it’s spring training.” Donaldson was forced to exit last Saturday’s game with cramping, but manager John Gibbons expects him to be back on the field in the next few days.
• Troy Tulowitzki won’t be ready for Opening Day, Gibbons said yesterday, but has a chance of playing before the end of April. Recovery from the bone spur in his heel is taking longer than expected. With Tulowitzki off of the roster, the Blue Jays are expected to carry more infield depth, perhaps including Gift Ngoepe, and a seven-man bullpen.
• Marcus Stroman won’t start Opening Day with an inflamed shoulder, but he still may not miss his spot in the rotation. The Blue Jays are leaning towards starting J.A. Happ, Jon Morosi reports.
• Anthony Alford was scratched from yesterday’s lineup against the Atlanta Braves with an injured hamstring. The injury doesn’t appear to be particularly serious, although it’s certainly of concern to the Blue Jays. Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reported that it was only a “tweak.”
• Randal Grichuk and Steve Pearce are both scheduled to travel with the Blue Jays to Fort Myers tomorrow to play the Boston Red Sox, per Nicholson-Smith, a good sign in their recovery from rib-cage and calf issues, respectively.
• Dalton Pompey will miss a few days after injuring his right wrist on a slide and aggravating it on a swing. If the rest doesn’t help, he’ll receive a cortisone shot.

I’d like to think that most of these players wouldn’t be missing time if it was the regular season and if games really mattered.

Hopefully that’s it for spring training. It would be wonderful if we didn’t have enough injuries for me to write a piece like this again.

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkColley. He can be contacted at markarcolley@gmail.com.