The 2026 Toronto Blue Jays have been off to a rocky start, and some of that is due to injuries.

The Blue Jays have over 106 million dollars on the IL as of April 15th. Injuries aren’t necessarily something a team can control, and some have had a major impact on the roster. So much so that the team has been making several transactions to the major league roster to try to shore up depth across multiple positions.

Some players’ absence has been felt massively, and we are going to look at a few names who are sorely missed and will hopefully return to the team sooner rather than later.

Missing Trey Yesavage was something Blue Jays fans did not expect at the start of Spring Training.

After an impressive postseason run, many people had him pencilled in as one of the top arms alongside Dylan Cease and Kevin Gausman in the rotation. However, a shoulder impingement issue halted his spot on the 2026 rotation, and the team was very cautious with his workload and ramping up to begin the year. Having to resort to using an arm such as Patrick Corbin is not something the organization expected, but here we are.

Fortunately,  Yesavage is looking like he is progressing well as he has another rehab start in Triple-A Buffalo on Wednesday, with the hope that he can rejoin the club at the earliest by the end of April. While he’s not the solution to all of the Blue Jays’ problems, providing some more stability to an ailing rotation is something that many have been clamouring for for the last few weeks.

Yesavage only made a pair of starts in the regular season last year and put up a 3.21 ERA across three games in the regular season last year, but given how strong depth-wise the pitching rotation is on paper when healthy, reinforcements can’t come soon enough.

Without a doubt, the biggest absence from the organization mid-season belongs to Alejandro Kirk.

When Kirk suffered a thumb fracture back on April 3rd, it was a devastating blow early in the season, as he has been the rock behind the plate for the past several seasons. While he has only hit .150 in the five games he’s played this season, Kirk’s importance as the primary catcher is crucial, as he is one of the best framing catchers behind the plate and also blocks pitches that dip out of the strike zone at a high level.

The tandem of Tyler Heinemann and rookie Brandon Valenzuela has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Both have been committing sloppy errors and pitch calls, leading to the opposing teams scoring runs off the team’s defensive miscues. With Heinemann battling back spasms over the past few games, the majority of the games have fallen on Valenzuela’s shoulders. While Heinemann is hitting .333 in nine games this season, he has only registered singles and has cashed just one RBI over that span. While Valenzuela has hit his first big league home run as a go-ahead two-run home run back on April 12th against the Minnesota Twins, he only has four hits in 23 at-bats this season: not exactly ideal.

While again, Valenzuela is a rookie and filling in for Kirk is not expected to be too long a role, having the duties fall to a 25-year old rookie and a 35-year old journeyman catcher is not the best scenario for a team looking to repeat as American League East Champions.

Following in the same category as Trey Yesavage, not having Jose Berrios is another arm that the team would very much want to start games for them sooner rather than later.

The 31- year old is nursing an elbow injury since mid-spring, but has slowly been getting his velocity back up to normal. Berrios has been nursing several injuries dating back to last season, as he stated he was battling a bicep injury as well as being shut down due to elbow inflammation to finish off the 2025 season.

With Shane Bieber still a ways away from throwing and losing Cody Ponce to injury as well, Berrios went from a likely trade candidate in the off-season to now likely being the third or fourth man in the rotation upon returning.

In 2025, Berrios ended with a 4.08 ERA in 30 starts last year, with his last appearance coming out of the bullpen last September. While his 3.75 ERA in the first half of the season was strong for the team, his 5.15 ERA in the second half was really his downfall, as July was when the injuries really became prevalent to the pitching staff. You can never have enough pitching, and even though Berrios is someone who will take a little bit of extra time after his rehab start last night, having a consistent major league starting pitching core is without a doubt important, and by making sure the arms are 100% by the time the IL stint is over.

When it rains, it pours. And George Springer’s IL stint was one of the last things the organization needed.

After he fouled a ball off his right foot during Saturday’s game against the Twins, an MRI showed a fracture in Springer’s big toe, resulting in a trip to the 10-day IL and the recall of DH Eloy Jimenez from Buffalo. Good news for all involved is that this injury is not severe, and many in the organization are expecting the 36-year-old to return after the team’s road trip in a week.

While Springer is only hitting .185 on the season and is tied for second on the team in strikeouts (14), he was slowly finding his rhythm at the plate before the injury, with hits in three of his last four games. The Blue Jays dodged a bullet with the injury not being a long-term issue, but not having the player who led your team in home runs a season ago is surely something that would be hard to replace for a long period of time.

Springer is entering the final year of his contract with Toronto, and the organization would surely not want to risk long-term injury, even though playing through pain is something he’s used to, as he was nursing a plethora of injuries throughout the postseason run.

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