Borucki suffers elbow injury, will miss start of season

Amidst the chaos that is Blue Jays pitchers dropping like flies to various injuries, it was announced earlier Saturday that Ryan Borucki will also miss some time due to an elbow injury.

During a minor league start this past Wednesday, the 24-year-old starter took himself out after experiencing some discomfort. He has had two separate surgeries on his elbow in the past, so he did not want to take any chances.

The expectation is that he will just miss one single rotation at the beginning of the season and will be back after that. Approximately when the Jays are in Cleveland from April 4th to the 7th.

Just another injury to add to a growing list as the season approaches. Relievers Ryan Tepera and John Axford are already listed as out for at least a couple weeks, the latter having the more serious injury, so management already has to delve into their pitching depth to start the year.

As Shi Davidi points out in his tweet above, the most likely candidates to take Borucki’s position in the rotation are Trent Thornton, Sean Reid-Foley, Thomas Pannone, or Sam Gaviglio.

Thornton, 25, who was acquired for infielder Aledmys Diaz over the winter, has pitched 11 and one-third innings in spring training this year, posting a 3.97 ERA, striking out 12 batters while only walking three.

The other three in consideration had at least one start for the Jays in 2018.

Both the rotation and bullpen to start the season will be up in the air, but at least they have somewhat experienced arms to replace the injured.