Jose Bautista’s Wrist Injury Ends His Season

Bautista led the American League in home runs in both 2010 and ‘11. But he got off to a terrible start this season. When the 11th of May dawned, Bautista’s ledger included just five home runs and a .177 batting average. But then Bautista got on track, and by the All-Star break he sported perfectly respectable numbers.

And now he’s finished for the season. Wrist injuries are notoriously unpredictable and sometimes linger for longer than expected. Which has to worry the Blue Jays at least a little, as they’re on the hook for $43 million after this season.

We will have more on the Bautista injury as the details come in.

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Prior to Bautista’s injury, the Jays were 45-45. Middling, to be sure — and suffering under a raft of injuries to the pitching staff — but still hanging in. They were leading the league in runs scored and ranked second in home runs. With Bautista in the lineup, the Jays hit a combined .253 and scored an average of 4.97 runs per game.

But in 34 games without Bautista, the club hit just .229 — with a woeful .283 on-base percentage — while averaging 3.53 runs per game.The Jays were still in wild-card contention at the time of Bautista’s injury. Without him, they went 11-23; out of the playoff hunt now, Bautista and the team at least hope to finish the year strong.

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Bautista took batting practice outdoors for the second straight day, and on Sunday evening will fly south to start a minor-league rehab assignment in Florida.

If all goes well, it’s “a realistic possibility” that he could rejoin the Blue Jays in Baltimore on Friday, manager John Farrell said.The National Post article quotes Bautista as saying his wrist is now “100 percent”. Bautista will join his teammate Lawrie, who has been rehabbing a muscle strain in his ribcage; Lawrie has already been at Dunedin of the Florida State League on a rehab assignment and could, according to the article, rejoin the Blue Jays as soon as Tuesday.

Toronto has been ravaged by injuries this season and since Bautista’s injury has gone 11-21 and fallen out of playoff contention.

The Sportsnet article also says Bautista hasn’t picked up a bat since last Wednesday, when the Jays were in Seattle; he had some discomfort while taking some swings then, so he’ll continue to be shut down.

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To make room for Gose on the 40-man roster, the Blue Jays transferred Brandon Morrow to the 60-day DL.

Gose will be a fine addition to the Blue Jays’ lineup, but it will be tough to replace the bat of Joey Bats.

The ball went deep down the left-field line before hooking foul, but Bautista left the game with what the Blue Jays are calling a wrist injury: