Cody Ponce’s injury: The Blue Jays’ rotation is in trouble

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Cody Ponce’s injury: The Blue Jays’ rotation is in trouble
Credit: Sportsnet

The Blue Jays have eight Major League starting pitchers at their disposal… on paper. Trey Yesavage and Jose Berrios are just a few weeks away from being able to contribute, while Shane Bieber is still a long way off.

And now, everything points to Cody Ponce joining them on the injured list. So much for depth, then?

Yesterday, in his Blue Jays debut, the starter got hurt in the third inning against the Rockies. He tried to field a ground ball and clearly injured his lower body, as they say.

A cart came to pick him up for the rest of the game.

Officially, knee discomfort is the reason for his absence. But it's widely expected that he'll undergo medical tests and miss games moving forward.

And that puts the Blue Jays in a bind.

With Brendon Little also struggling (he could be sent down to AAA before the next game), we should expect some lineup changes moving forward.

According to Francys Romero, Lázaro Estrada will be recalled.

Will he serve as the fifth starter? He pitched 2.2 innings in Buffalo on Friday, and the Blue Jays, given the schedule and the rain in Chicago this weekend, will need more than four starters.

Not ideal, you say?

Max Scherzer, in his first start of the season tonight, will need to pitch a ton of innings to save the bullpen. Yesterday, four relievers pitched in addition to Tyler Heineman, who gave up five runs in two innings in a 14-5 loss. He really helped out, didn't he?

We'll see how the Blue Jays respond after this disastrous night on so many levels.

PMLB
  • And that's one.
  • Walk-off hit by Cal Raleigh.
  • A perfect inning for Michael Soroka.
  • Justin Verlander: great to see him in Detroit.
  • Bo Bichette stepped up.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.

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