Blue Jays’ Lourdes Gurriel Jr. leaves contest with leg injury

Toronto Blue Jays prospect Lourdes Gurriel Jr. exited his first minor league contest with the Dunedin Blue Jays after re-aggravating his leg injury.

The muchly anticipated debut of the Blue Jays offseason International signing did not go as planned for Lourdes Gurriel Jr. as the prospect left the contest after re injuring his leg while running to first.

Gurriel Jr. missed time during spring training with a leg injury and was just activated off the minor league 7-day disabled list before yesterday’s game. The 23-year old connected for an rbi double in his first at-bat but then suffered the injury in his following at-bat.

The shortstop who in all likelihood was poised for the fast track to the majors after the Jays invested $22 million on a 7-year pact for the native of Cuba and brother of major leaguer Yulieski Gurriel. Baseball America anointed Gurriel the 73rd best prospect in their Top 100 prospect rankings earlier in the spring.

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The team optioned Gurriel to Dunedin on the 17th of March and then he was officially placed on the minor league disabled list on the 06th of April. Gurriel saw action in 5 Grapefruit League games registering 7 at-bats during spring hitting .286 with a home run while battling the hamstring injury.

Jays manager John Gibbons had nothing but praise for Gurriel after his first home run during spring training:

“The kid’s got a lot of talent. He’ll be calling home tonight, I would think, keep hitting ‘em like that.”“He’s very athletic. You just want him to get his feet wet, get familiar around all of the guys, he’s a wonderful kid, man, he’s always smiling—there’s reasons he’s smiling.”

Next: Blue Jays will have to make decision on Donaldson’s future

Gurriel will be re-accessed today as the Jays will announce a prognosis later in the day. Expect the youngster not to see game action until the Blue Jays are completely confident the uber-prospect is one hundred percent healthy.