Blue Jays: Tulowitzki will likely be on the shelf for awhile

Troy Tulowitzki had to leave Friday’s game against the Angels with an ankle injury. The early diagnosis looks like a sprain, but it looks like a bad one.

Just as he was starting to come around at the plate, Troy Tulowitzki suffered his latest injury, leaving the game on Friday night with an ankle injury. The early diagnosis sounds like it’s a sprain, which is great news after the way he went down while running to first. He’ll undergo further tests today to check for further damage.

In case you missed it, Tulo was sprinting to first base while attempting to beat out an infield season, and unfortunately stepped on the foot of Angels’ first baseman C.J. Cron. The shortstop went down in a heap, and had to be helped off the field by the training staff.

The image was far from pleasant, and is the latest in a long history of bad injury breaks for the 5 time All-Star. He already missed over a month on the disabled list with hamstring issues earlier in the year, and it feels like a near certainty that he’ll hit the DL again.

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The unfortunate fact is, Tulowitzki is as injury prone as they come, having only played more than 150 games in a season once in his 12 year career. He managed to play 131 games last year with the Blue Jays, which was his highest total since 2011 when he appeared in 143 contests.

This injury was of the freak variety to be sure, as it was nothing more than bad luck that Tulo stepped on Cron’s foot, who was simply trying to make a play on the ball thrown to first base. As much fun as it would be to point the finger in the Angels’ direction, injuries happen in baseball, something the Blue Jays are all too familiar with.

It remains to be seen how long he’ll be out, but we’ll likely get a better update sometime Saturday least according to John Gibbons, via Hazel Mae.

If history is any indication, the 32 year old has often taken longer than projected to recover from injuries, so it would be optimistic to expect him back in the near future. Perhaps he got away lucky with a minor sprain, but the way he had to be helped off the field didn’t look good. In fact, the commentators feared that he had either broken his ankle, or possibly torn a ligament. So far it appears that he’s avoided those serious injuries, but further tests could still reveal more damage.

In the mean time, the Blue Jays will use some combination of Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney at shortstop at second base, and it’s expected that Rob Refsynder will be called up to join the club and provide additional depth in the middle infield. Refsynder was acquired by the Jays from the Yankees in a trade last week, with the Blue Jays sending Ryan McBroom to the Yankees in the swap.

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