Brett Lawrie back on DL, Blue Jays recall Rob Rasmussen

Toronto Blue Jays’ Brett Lawrie has had quite the up and down week. After being activated from the disabled list on Tuesday, the third baseman notched a hit in his first at bat, then promptly came out of the game after feeling a tightening in his back. On Thursday, the Blue Jays placed Lawrie back on the 15-day disabled list with a grade 1 strain of the left oblique, per Mike Wilner.

As Mark Zwolinski of the National Post mentioned last night, the Blue Jays were concerned that the area of Lawrie’s back injury could coincide with the oblique strain he suffered while training with Team Canada for the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Their concerns were validated this morning when doctors in Florida took the MRI results from Wednesday and compared them to his MRI from last season.

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With this latest injury, Lawrie is expected to miss the next 3-6 weeks and puts another cloud over the Blue Jays as they attempt to make up ground on the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East and try to hold off the New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals, and Seattle Mariners in a tight Wild Card race.

In addition to Lawrie, the Blue Jays have been playing an extended period of time without Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion. While Encarnacion is starting to hit again, he has not yet begun a rehab assignment. Lind is set to join the GCL Blue Jays today and could be ready to join the Blue Jays by the end of the weekend.

To take Lawrie’s roster space, the Blue Jays have recalled left-handed reliever Rob Rasmussen, who has a 3.18 ERA in 11 appearances with the Blue Jays in 2014. However, his stay with Toronto is likely to be short, as the Blue Jays will need to activate Steve Tolleson from the paternity list by week’s end.