The Toronto Blue Jays‘ injured list has continued to grow over the past month. Not many players are coming off it, as numerous roster players are still recovering from injuries.

As the list continues to expand, here’s a look at each injured major leaguer and their latest health update.

Ever since Max Scherzer found himself on the injured list on March 30th with thumb inflammation, the Jays’ rotation has struggled with its depth and covering the gap.

Thankfully, the right-hander appears to be nearing a return in the coming weeks. On the 27th of May, he re-joined the team’s travels after a pair of successful bullpens in which he faced live batters for the first time since the injury. He’s thrown upwards of 45 pitches during those sessions and told manager John Schneider that he felt good during them. The next steps would be getting into some rehab game action and then progressing to rejoin the Jays.

The issue has been a thorn in Scherzer’s side over the past few seasons (He only made nine starts with the Texas Rangers in 2024), however, so the team appears to be playing it cautious with regards to his return.

As one of the most recent injuries to the Jays staff, Yimi Garcia’s exit stung a lot, considering a plethora of other relievers were already out of action, and he was seeing a lot of high-leverage appearances.

His last outing was on May 22nd, and he was officially announced out on the 24th with an impingement in his right shoulder. Manager Schneider says that it was simply overuse that led to the injury.

The latest information on the hard-throwing righty is that he got a cortisone shot to help with the pain and will stop throwing for a little bit to catch up on some rest.

High-leverage reliever Erik Swanson has been on the IL since the start of the season. He began on the 15-day IL as he dealt with median nerve entrapment in his throwing arm, but had to be moved to the 60-day IL on May 5th as the problem wasn’t healing as quickly as anticipated and the Jays needed his space on the roster.

He appears to be nearing a return after the latest news. His two rehab outings in single-A Dunedin went according to plan as he allowed no runs through 1 1/3 innings combined between the two games. Then, he moved to Buffalo for another game on May 27th, posting a scoreless inning on nine pitches. The newest discourse is that the Jays want Swanson to appear in one more game for the Bisons and will re-evaluate on Friday.

Expect Swanson to return soon and provide a boost to the Jays’ bullpen.

Following up on Swanson, Nick Sandlin is a fellow reliever who appears close to a return, much to the pleasure of the Jays’ bullpen, which may very well get flooded with all the near returns.

Sandlin hit the 15-day IL on April 20th with a lat strain, but has now thrown a bullpen session a little over a month later on May 26th.

He should be facing hitters and embarking on a rehab assignment in the minor leagues soon.

Not all of the Jays’ injured relievers had good news come their way in the past few days. Ryan Burr’s shoulder inflammation has kept him off the diamond since the beginning of the season.

He was transferred to the 60-day IL near the end of April and was finally nearing a rehab stint, but felt the shoulder flare up again when throwing ahead of the outing.

Burr’s expected to meet with the team’s doctors back in Toronto, meaning that his time on the IL may yet to have an end in sight.

Since June of 2024, Alek Manoah has been recovering from the hybrid Tommy John surgery he had on his throwing arm. The big right-hander has thrown multiple bullpen sessions at this point as he continues to ramp back up toward an eventual return.

He recently visited the team when they stopped in Florida to face the Tampa Bay Rays and told Sportsnet’s David Singh, “Being able to help in any way is what I’m focused on. I want to get back out there. I want to be healthy. I want to be great.”

While playing against the San Diego Padres, Tyler Heineman took multiple pitches and foul balls off his mask behind the plate. He appeared slightly out of it during the series and officially reported a concussion on the 24th of May.

The Jays called up Ali Sanchez from the Buffalo Bisons in a corresponding move to Heineman hitting the IL, and there haven’t been any updates on the concussion as of yet.

As concussions allow for shorter IL stints (only seven days compared to the normal 10, 15, or 60), expect to see him back sooner rather than later, assuming his recovery goes well.

The Jays’ second baseman hasn’t been on the diamond since suffering a right quad strain on May 7th, but finally got into some rehab action yesterday in Dunedin, going 1 for 3 at the plate.

He was ramping up baseball activities over the past week, which included running and throwing drills, and is now getting back into game action. Gimenez will likely see some time in Buffalo before rejoining the Jays, so expect a potential return sometime next week if all goes well.

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