Blue Jays injury updates: big names moving in the right direction

The Toronto Blue Jays have been extremely unlucky this season. Not only have they been hit by the injury bug, but the players that are on the Injured List are impactful names that, if they were healthy, would certainly be contributing to the big league roster and perhaps the team wouldn't be sitting at 9-13 after 22 games.

So that's why it's welcoming to hear that a couple of those key guys are getting closer to their return. As reported by Hazel Mae of Sportsnet, Yimi Garcia, George Springer and Addison Barger have had recieved positive news in their rehabilitation journey.

In the case of Garcia, he is now throwing live batting practice to hitters. A significant step for a guy that could be a bonafide weapon at the back end of the bullpen. As conversations heat up around the viability of Jeff Hoffman being in the closers role over the long-term, adding a guy like Garcia to the mix could help ease whatever transition may take place in that area.

When healthy, Garcia has been worth 1.3 bWAR in four years with the Blue Jays. He's pitched to a 3.49 ERA in 187 games and has racked up 204 strikeouts in 178 innings pitched. He's been dealing with an elbow injury that required surgery and he's been working his way back from that ever since.

Springer fractured his left toe in a game against the Minnesota Twins on Apr. 12. He fouled a ball off his foot and while he stayed in the game for a bit longer, he was removed in the middle of the game and hasn't been on the field since. But he's been doing a lot of baseball related activities since the injury and has been seen in the dugout in almost every game, cheering on his teammates. Manager John Schneider says Springer will do some "dynamic warmup and mobility stuff" in addition to throwing and hitting.

After a 2025 campaign in which he hit .309/.399/.560 with 32 home runs and 18 stolen bases, earning a Silver Slugger award at DH, getting the 36-year-old back into the fold could do wonders for this offence.

As could getting the 26-year-old Barger back in there full-time. Barger hit 21 home runs in his first full season with the Blue Jays last year, with a .756 OPS in 135 games. He's flexibility to play the corner outfield spots as well as third base gives the Blue Jays some extra options defensively, while Barger was also expected to be a potent middle of the order hitter in 2026.

He wasn't there before the injury, slashing .053/.174/.105 through the first eight games of the year, but he was starting to make much better, and harder contact in the last two games before he hurt his ankles trying to beat out a throw in Chicago in a game against the White Sox. With Barger expected to begin running today (Apr. 21) if everything goes right he could be placed right back into the Blue Jays lineup quickly.

Blue Jays key players could fuel the team at the exact right moment

Those are just three of the 10 players currently on the IL who make up $100 million in total payroll. That's not just a lot of money being unused, it's a lot of wins being unaccounted for.

Jays Journal's Brandon Glick just wrote about the amount of projected win totals those players on the IL were responsible for in 2025 in this article, coming to the conclusion that the Blue Jays are missing nearly 13 wins worth of production at the moment. It can't stay that way if the Blue Jays want to get back to the playoffs in 2026. The only way to fix it is for the guys who are currently healthy needing to step up and contribute more meaningfully, or, the Blue Jays get some of those key players back.

Ironically, it looks like both are slowly happening at the same time as the Blue Jays have won two in a row, with those on the 26-man roster doing their job, and these updates are great news for three key Blue Jays who are making positive strides in their rehabilitation to get back on the field.

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