Blue Jays appear to dodge bullet with Max Scherzer's injury

The Toronto Blue Jays may have missed out on some big-name free agents this offseason, but they were still able to nail down one marquee free agent in future Hall of Fame pitcher Max Scherzer. Unfortunately, in his first start, he went down with an injury. However, it seems like like Scherzer may have dodged a bullet in regard to his injury.

Blue Jays appear to dodge bullet with Scherzer's thumb injury

On Monday, Blue Jays manager John Schneider spoke to reporters about Scherzer's injury and said that Scherzer received a cortisone shot in his right thumb, which is generally good news given the situation.

While it's never great to have 40-year-old pitcher be injured this early in the season, him needing a shot is a relatively good sign. That will likely put his return in the time frame of weeks, not months. Schneider said that Scherzer will be day-to-day in determining what the next steps are.

Scherzer managed to go just three innings in his Blue Jays debut before leaving with the injury. He had one strikeout and allowed three earned runs.He only managed to throw 43 1/3 innings last year due to injury and had a 3.95 ERA with 40 strikeouts.

The Blue Jays signed Scherzer to help with their quest toward a postseason berth in a crowded division. Now they'll have to figure out how to get by in the meantime.

Scherzer is an aging veteran, so injury issues were a natural concern with him. Luckily, it sounds like he won't miss a large chunk of time.

Until Scherzer gets back, they'll need to rely on their bullpen arms and some unheralded options in the starting rotation. Easton Lucas was called up in Scherzer's spot and will get the start on Wednesday, but there's also a good chance that we could see Yariel Rodríguez in the rotation at some point as well.

But no matter what kind of mixing and matching the Jays need to do, Tuesday's update makes it seem like it'll all be temporary, which is the best news given the situation.