Blue Jays: Cancelled games a blessing for Donaldson and the Jays

The Blue Jays have had the misfortunate of three straight cancellations. While it’s rough for the fans, it’s great for Josh Donaldson’s time to rest.

Before anyone accuses me of trying to convince you otherwise, let’s get something straight: Rain outs suck. It’s even more frustrating when your team plays in a ballpark with a dome, and somehow Mother Nature still finds a way to intervene. Such has been life for the Blue Jays over the course of their last three scheduled games.

The timing has been frustrating for the Blue Jays on one hand, as they’ve been playing some pretty good baseball so far this year. They’re currently sitting at 9-5, and had defeated the Cleveland Indians in the first of their three game set on Friday. They were washed out on Saturday and Sunday, and now the ice storm that’s hit Ontario has found a way to keep them off the field in Toronto as well. It’s tough losing momentum to weather, but they’re far from the only team dealing with this early in the 2018 calendar.

On the other hand, the cancellations coincided with another significant development for the Blue Jays. They had to place Josh Donaldson on the disabled list just three days ago, and so far he’s only missed one game, a contest the Blue Jays won by a score of 8-4. Ironically losing the “Bringer of Rain” from the lineup has had the opposite effect on the weather.

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While there is no timetable for Donaldson’s return at the moment, we’ve been told that it’s mostly “dead arm”, and a situation that requires strengthening to the shoulder. It might take a few weeks, it could take a month, who knows. The reality is, it’s really difficult to predict with something like this. The Blue Jays have said that there was no new damage to the area for the 2015 AL MVP, so in theory some rest and targeted exercises should have him back in a relatively short time.

Right now the Blue Jays will have to make up their two games with Cleveland in May, with the first one being announced as a double header on May 3rd. It might be optimistic to expect Donaldson back for that series, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility at all. The Blue Jays also missed out on seeing one of the best pitchers in baseball in Corey Kluber when Saturday’s game was rained out. They could very well run into him in May instead, but they’ll also get a game against either a promoted player from Triple-A, or possibly a bullpen game from Terry Francona‘s pitching staff. Even with one of the best bullpen’s in the game, that’s easier than facing off against Kluber, and of course Donaldson could potentially be back in the lineup by then.

They won’t get the same luxury of delaying tonight’s game against the Royals until Donaldson is back, but one more night of rest isn’t the worst thing. With a team that features several older veterans and guys that struggled to stay healthy last year like Devon Travis and Aaron Sanchez, there could be worst things than rest.

Next: Travis hopes to replicate May success from 2017

I’m as annoyed as the rest of you that there won’t be Blue Jays baseball tonight, but I did my best to present a silver lining. Let’s hope the Leafs can bring some joy to the Toronto sports world tonight instead.