Montoyo provides injury update on Buchholz, Borucki, Tepera, Vlad and more

Only four games and one series into the 2019 season and there is already a mass injury update. Devastated with injuries early on, some key players are nearing a return.

With how they have started the season, no one would have really guessed that there are injuries to some of the more dependable pitchers normally in the Jays’ pitching staff. What looked to be a weakness for the current formation of this team, has become a strength in the extremely small sample size that we have.

Luckily, Charlie Montoyo gave everyone an update on the current injuries this afternoon.

In this storm of news and revisitation of where some injured players are at with their recovery, some key names pop up on when they can be expected to return.

First, newly-signed Clay Buchholz is expected to start pitching at a higher volume this week and has a possible return penciled in for the series against the Rays mid-April.

Also stating a possible return mid-April will be Ryan Tepera. Tepera was unable to start the season for the Jays with an elbow injury, but luckily the bullpen has started out hot in 2019.

Ryan Borucki will be coming back a little bit later — Shi Davidi speculates during the late-April series against the Giants — but the young starter will be looking to improve on his already impressive debut season in 2018.

This season has already been exciting. Could be just the return of baseball polishing our rose-coloured glasses, but the Jays have been at least entertaining. Imagine how fun they will be to watch when the greatest prospect in all of baseball, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. becomes healthy again and makes his MLB debut.

Suffering an oblique injury during spring training, Guerrero had only 19 at-bats before his injury. Charlie Montoyo stated that his return appears to be on-track and he is starting to play extended spring games. Montoyo said specifically to him to take his time and fully recover from his injury. Say, just a couple more weeks.

The most problematic signing of the winter, Bud Norris, does not have a timeline on his return to pitching at full-strength, but his late start does not help.