George Springer lands on the injured list with a knee sprain
Montoyo hopeful the star CF can return by the end of the season
Well this isn’t the sort of news anybody wants to hear. Ahead of the first of two big games against the reeling Washington Nationals, the Toronto Blue Jays announced here on Tuesday that outfielder George Springer has landed on the injured list with a knee sprain.
So I guess we have to talk about this.
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If you thought the bottom seventh inning of the Jays' 9-3 loss to the Mariners on Saturday night was bad before, it's now moved into frame of potentially season-defining pain. With the Jays up 3-2, Ty France led off with a deep fly on a 1-2 pitch from Hyun Jin Ryu. George Springer sprinted to the ball and leapt toward it as it, then he, crashed off the wall. The ball rolled away and France made it to third. Springer left the game. Two batters later Trevor Richards was in and it all unravelled from there.
A bullpen meltdown and a Springer injury. Truly the two things that, if it doesn't work out for these Blue Jays this year, will be most responsible for it.
But at first everything seemed to be fine.
After the game, manager Charlie Montoyo gave reporters the “kind of good news” which was that X-rays were negative, adding that Springer was suffering from a mild strain of his left ankle.
"He just came into my office right now and said, 'Man, I'll be alright,’” Montoyo said.
Then on Sunday’s TV broadcast, there was Springer, hanging around in the dugout, laughing like usual, seemingly moving well — as was noted by the booth. It felt at the time like he would likely avoid the IL, if not be outright available to pinch hit in D.C. this week. Now this.
Not only was the issue not with his ankle, it’s now sent him to the injured list and, apparently, put his entire season in jeopardy.
At the time of this writing, Springer is due to see the Nationals’ doctor for further tests to determine the severity of the sprain. Once testing is done we’ll have a better idea of the timeline, but Sportsnet’s Ben Wagner notes that when Bo Bichette had a mild (Grade 1) knee sprain last year he was out from August 16 to September 12. That’s a lot of additional time off for a guy who had already missed most of the season’s first three months, and who has been so vital to the offence over the last several weeks.
Springer has managed just 211 plate appearances for the Jays so far, though they've been quite spectacular. Slashing .269/.362/.610 with 16 home runs in 49 games, Springer's wRC+ sits at 157 — eighth best in baseball among players with at least 200 PA — and he has amassed 1.7 WAR per FanGraphs.
It’s that kind of elite production that allowed the Blue Jays to look past the fact that he’s had trouble staying on the field — a problem that, unfortunately, isn’t likely to abate as he gets deeper into his 30s — when signing him to the most expensive contract in club history this past winter.
No, the training staff shouldn’t be fired (that was a hard collision with that wall). No, he’s not “made of glass,” and no, it’s not a doomed deal — if you think so you’re an idiot. But since playing 162 games as a 26-year-old in 2016 he's managed 140, 140, 122, 51 of 60 last season, and now this year he'll remain stuck on 49 for at least another 10 days, likely longer. Manageable numbers, at least until this year’s lost season.
Speaking of those, this is obviously a blow to the Blue Jays’ playoff chances. They still have plenty of fire power offensively, but the downgrade from Springer to Randal Grichuk is significant. FanGraphs' Depth Charts project 1.2 WAR for the rest of the season from a healthy Springer, but just 0.4 wins for Grichuk. And in that scenario, they have Grichuk producing a 104 wRC+, his career average. Since the start of June, Grichuk's wRC+ has been just 73.
It’s not good!
It’s also not exactly the end of the world, as Bichette’s time off last year reminds us. Though it’s certainly a bit odd in the way it has all come about, and the way that the Blue Jays have managed information — and not for the first time this year.
Remember when Springer left a game against Atlanta with “tired legs” in the same series that we saw him grab his quad while running to first base after clearly re-aggravating it — something the Blue Jays later had no choice but to admit. Remember when Alejandro Kirk’s injury timeline shifted and he ended up on the 60-day IL? The Blue Jays need to figure it out with this stuff. By which I mean quit dicking around!
There can be no dicking around on the field from this point on either. Their games this week with the Nationals present a big chance to pick up a couple wins against a lesser opponent, which is exactly the thing that they’re going to need to do and keep doing in order to stay in the race. Especially since their margin for error just got thinner.
But if there's a silver lining here, it's this. If the injury ends up not being too bad and he only needs the minimum, Springer will be eligible to return on Wednesday, August 25th, which is the third game of a four-game set against the White Sox. If that's the case he'll have missed a win against the Mariners, a pair of off days, two against the Nationals, three against the Tigers, and two against the White Sox. And if his injury goes beyond that, after the four against Chicago it's three in Detroit, then three against Baltimore, then an off day before the schedule finally takes a serious turn with three against the A's in Toronto and four against the Yankees in the Bronx. Bichette's timeline would suggest he'll miss those series too, but maybe there's a way. Getting back to face Oakland would be huge. Maybe for once the Jays will have a guy miss less time than they originally figured, rather than later.
Stranger things have happened on the Blue Jays injury front this year. Get well soon, George.
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When one looks at the bullpen woes it is difficult not to think some fault lay with Blue Jays organization at some level. The Rays have had the same injury woes (perhaps worse!) and are the top relief squad in the majors. They have a rotation with no significant aces holding down third in the MLB. The Jays may not be bad managing their players, but it is clear they haven't the superior skill the Rays always seem to have getting the best out of the players available.
Well poop