Jays Jots: Blue Jays Minor Moves and Injury News

May 9, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie (13) at bat against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

With the Toronto Blue Jays fully locked into a the last three games of a 17-game stretch, you could imagine that news would be few and far between. Then again, the Major League Baseball trade deadline is right around the corner as well, so that should fix itself shortly, with the Blue Jays currently straddling the fence as both a buyer or a seller.

For now though, we have to settle for a few minor moves and injury updates as they fall into place.

– Third Baseman Brett Lawrie is currently residing in Lansing, rehabbing with the Lugnuts. Interestingly enough, earlier in the week the Blue Jays announced that Lawrie had been “assigned” to Lansing, and not sent there on a rehab assignment. Understandably, that has triggered the speculation that he is not simply on a rehab assignment, but is going to spend quite a bit of time in the minors. That has since been updated to a rehab assignment, but nonetheless, I don’t think you’d find many surprised fans if Lawrie spends more than the normal amount of time in the minors this season.

– Also on the rehab front is Sergio Santos. The right-handed reliever is currently in Dunedin working his way back from a forearm issue and a subsequent elbow surgery to remove bone spurs. He’ll also likely spend the full allotted time in the minors working his way back, as the Blue Jays bullpen is already overstocked and has been effective without him.

– Joining him in Dunedin is Kyle Drabek. Now, Drabek was sent to Dunedin on rehab on June 22nd, but the early results have been rough for the right-hander coming off his second Tommy John surgery. He’s surrendered 6 runs in his first 5.1 innings back, but the Blue Jays have to be encouraged about his control thus far, having walked just a single batter in that span. Regardless, Toronto officially optioned Drabek to Dunedin earlier today, and it remains to be seen what if any contribution he makes to Toronto this season.

– Finally we have the affable Chien-Ming Wang, who Ben Nicholson-Smith tells us has accepted his assignment and will join the Buffalo Bisons this weekend. That’s really not much of a surprise, as Wang’s last two outings would have likely scared off any Major League suitor, even the most desperate of them. That said, Wang established himself some decent value earlier this spring working in the Yankees system and could do the same thing in Buffalo, but his 7.13 ERA and 1.833 WHIP make it hard to imagine that happening in the short term.