Blue Jays’ Anthony Santander and Trey Yesavage suffer setbacks in respective rehabs

With the Toronto Blue Jays losing two straight to the Detroit Tigers, the margin for error just got that much thinner from here on out. Toronto will need all the help they can get in the coming days to have a shot at the MLB postseason.

However, that much-needed help might not be coming soon enough as two currently-injured Blue Jays stars have suffered some set backs. Slugger Anthony Santander and rookie pitcher Trey Yesavage got bad news during their respective rehabs on Tuesday.

Blue Jays potential reinforcements didn't raise the level of confidence for their playoff hopes

Many had already written off Santander for the 2026 season. Due to his shoulder surgery his recovery was expected to take the majority of the year. But in the last couple of weeks he had started making a valiant effort to return to the Blue Jays’ lineup before the end of the season. Santander got into two rehabs games with Triple-A affiliate Buffalo where he recorded a hit in seven at-bats.

The 31-year-old outfielder was then absent from the lineup on Tuesday as reports suggested he was experiencing lower back discomfort.

If that sounds all too familiar, Santander also experienced the same thing last season when he was working his way back from this same shoulder injury, late in the season. When he did eventually return, the ailment lingered and he was removed from the postseason roster. With this new development, the timeline for his return to Toronto this season could be up in the air now.

As for Yesavage, his setback fortunately doesn't appear to be injury-related, at the moment. The 23-year-old rookie just had a not-so-stellar outing in his first rehab game with Buffalo. He gave up two runs on two hits, a walk and zero strikeouts while failing to last a complete inning of work, retiring two hitters.

Surely, Yesavage had some rust to shake off after undergoing knee surgery on August 11. It was unlikely that he was going to be able to come out and dominate right away, so expectations had to be tempered with the given results.

Yesavage should be still on track to make it back by next week. It's now a question of whether he can give the Blue Jays enough to make an impact in their chase for a postseason berth. For the season, he has compiled a tidy 3.65 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, with 91 strikeouts in 93.2 innings pitched over 18 starts. The Blue Jays could really use that version of Yesavge to save their season sooner rather than later.

The Blue Jays next three games will lineup their regular starters with Max Scherzer pitching tonight (Wednesday), Dylan Cease will get the ball for Friday's opener in Texas, while José Soriano will throw on Saturday. The Blue Jays have TBD slotted in for Sunday's finale against the Rangers and Monday's series opener against Baltimore.

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