Report: Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson Likely Headed To DL

If you think the 1-8 record is bad, things got a little bit worse for the Toronto Blue Jays this morning.

The Toronto Blue Jays will likely place Josh Donaldson on at least the 10-day disabled list due to a calf injury, Jon Morosi of MLB.com tweeted. The move has yet to be formally announced by the club, but they have already called up Chris Coghlan from Triple A Buffalo.

Losing a leader and top former like Donaldson is an obvious blow to the Blue Jays, and fantasy owners alike.

In Thursday night’s 2-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, Donaldson left last night’s game after re-aggravating his right calf trying to run to second, after hitting a double in the bottom of the sixth. He was unable to put much weight on his leg as he needed assistance walking off the field from trainer, George Poulis.

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It’s the same calf he injured early in Spring Training, which he also tweaked on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Through nine games this season, Donaldson is hitting .310/.429/.586/1.015 with two home runs and four RBI. The 2015 MVP should take a very cautious, and deliberate path to be healthy in order play for the remainder of the season. Needless to say, this is the right move.

The biggest move here is that the Blue Jays will likely turn the reigns over to Darwin Barney. Barney did a splendid job filling in for a few injured infielders last season. In fact, Barney took over for Donaldson at third in 32 games too.

Barney’s stock value could boom as soon as Donaldson is placed on the DL. However, with Donaldson down, Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki, Kendrys Morales will have to carry more of the weight while the rest of the lineup will have to step it up a notch.

Next: Blue Jays: Donaldson struggling to stay healthy on turf

The Blue Jays will look to turn things around quickly. It’s a long season and we’re only in the second week of it- for this team to be competitive down the stretch they will need a healthy Donaldson to help them.