Blue Jays notes: Training-room injury shelves Yimi Garcia, fears for Andres Gimenez

Hamilton Spectator

06-07-2025

Some news and notes about the red-hot
Blue Jays
, who have turned a three-game deficit in the American League East into a three-game lead in just six days:
After just one outing — in which he gave up a game-tying home run to Aaron Judge in
Wednesday's 11-9 win over the New York Yankees
— reliever
Yimi García
is back on the injured list.
García
missed six weeks with a right shoulder impingement
and made one appearance before going back on the IL before Saturday's game against the Los Angeles Angels with a left ankle sprain, suffered after that Wednesday night outing when he slipped getting into the hot/cold tubs in the training room.
He was brought back this season as a free agent to be closer Jeff Hoffman's primary setup man, and before his first injury had notched six holds and three saves in 12 total opportunities, with a 2.99 ERA and 1.05 WHIP.
The unheralded Yariel Rodriguez and Braydon Fisher have stepped up to fill the void in a big way, combining for a 1.71 ERA and 0.80 WHIP in 58 appearances out of the bullpen, the latest being Fisher's two shutout innings Saturday to pick up the win.
Reliever Chad Green had a rough start to the season. The right-hander gave up a tiebreaking home run to Max Kepler in the eighth inning of what wound up a 3-2 loss to the Phillies in Philadelphia on June 14, bloating his ERA to 4.60. It was the ninth home run he had allowed in just 29 1/3 innings of work.
'The homers are the one thing ... it drives me nuts, to be honest,' the 34-year-old Green said on
a recent episode of 'Deep Left Field,' the Star's baseball podcast
. 'But then again ... I'm never going to be afraid of (hitters). Regardless of the situation ... I'm going to go at guys.'
Green has turned things around since mid-June, allowing just one run (yes, a solo homer) on three hits in his last nine appearances, including three scoreless outings in last week's
four-game sweep of the Yankees
and a hitless 10th inning Friday to pick up the win in the first of consecutive
4-3 victories over the Los Angeles Angels
.
Max Scherzer
was in and out of trouble over most of his four innings Saturday, but was nearly untouchable in the second. He started by missing low with a first-pitch fastball, but the next nine pitches were all strikes, resulting in strikeouts of Logan O'Hoppe, Luis Rengifo and Chad Stevens.
Scherzer has thrown three immaculate innings (nine pitches, three strikeouts) over a Hall of Fame-calibre career, the same as the Jays franchise total. Roger Clemens (1997), Steve Delabar (2013) and, of course,
Thomas Pannone (2019)
had one each.
Myles Straw scored the winning run Saturday, after coming on defensively in centre field in the seventh inning. He made an impact in the field as well, sprinting in to snag an O'Hoppe blooper with two on and one out in the 11th.
The eight-year veteran has been getting plenty of run in the absence of Daulton Varsho, starting half of the 32 games since
Varsho went down with a hamstring strain
. But when the Jays star centre-fielder returns some time in the next two weeks, Straw will go back to being a valuable 26th man on the roster.
When the Jays have both Straw and Varsho for late-inning defence 'it's going to be so hard for anybody to find grass out there,' said infielder Ernie Clement.
Second baseman Andrés Giménez was in a walking boot Saturday, nursing a left ankle injury suffered in Wednesday's game and aggravated while running the bases Friday night. As of Saturday evening, the Jays were waiting for the results of an MRI to determine the severity.
Giménez missed almost a month earlier this season with a quadriceps injury. With Clement filling in more than ably at second,
the Jays have gone 22-10 in games Giménez doesn't start.