Blue Jays' reliever taking a step back in his recovery process

The Toronto Blue Jays won't be getting as much relief to their reliever corps as they thought they would, at least not yet. Late last week, Yimi Garcia was getting ready to begin his rehab assignment, by starting a game for the FCL Blue Jays. It's one of many steps on the road to recovery, but always an important one. It usually means the player is closing in on their big league return and getting work in against live batters in a live game can help give the player and the team get a good read on just how far away they might be.

But that's when everything goes well and for Garcia, that was not the case when he was lifted from the game after he pitched to four batters this past Thursday. It's not clear if the plan was for Garcia to only face four hitters maximum or not. He got two quick outs before he allowed back-to-back singles and his night was over. The plan could have been to only let him go one full inning, but it does seem a little more worrisome now after the latest reports indicate that Garcia was experience more soreness than usual following the outing.

The Blue Jays have postponed his next outing, depending on how he responds to the extended rest. The hope was that he would be back in a game later this week. If he is, that's great news, but with the way the season has gone for the Blue Jays in 2026, you'd be forgiven if you didn't catch a single Blue Jays' fan that was holding their breath on this one.

Garcia's return could take longer than anticipated

The Blue Jays haven't had any luck in the injury department this season. So with Garcia experiencing elbow soreness, it could be another case of that pesky injury bug unrelenting in it's quest to completely derail the Blue Jays season. The best injury related news the Blue Jays seemed to have received is when it was revealed that Addison Barger's elbow injury wasn't "as bad as it could have been," but that's the way this season has gone as the team searches for any sliver of a silver lining.

Turning back to Garcia, he could, and still can be, a big part of the Blue Jays bullpen when, and if, he returns to full health. The 35-year-old from the Dominican Republic only pitched in 22 games with the Blue Jays last year due to various injures, but when he was healthy, he managed to be effective, with 25 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched, and accumulating a 3.86 ERA.

He's been more effective than not in two and a half seasons prior to that as well. Garcia first joined the Blue Jays in 2022 and in 61 games that season he pitched to a 3.10 ERA with a 1.049 FIP. His numbers dipped slightly in 2023, but in the first half of 2024 he was lights out. In 30 innings he struck out 42 batters, allowed just nine earned runs and had a 2.70 ERA and 0.800 WHIP.

The Blue Jays then shipped him to the Seattle Mariners at the deadline in a trade that Seattle likely would like to take back. They gave up minor leagues Jacob Sharp and Jonatan Clase and while both guys are still trying to break through in the minors, the Mariners got just nine innings from Garcia after the deadline in which he allowed six runs and finished 3.5 games out of first place in the AL West, missing the playoffs altogether.

While Toronto's bullpen has been solid ever since the Blue Jays made a the decision to go with a "closer by committe" set up, they could always use some reinforcements, especially ones that can pitch at the calibre they have seen out of Garcia in the past.

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