Former Blue Jays slugging fan favorite suffers brutal ACL tear

It was a worst case scenario for former Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. The former fan favourite of the Blue Jays and current member of the Arizona Diamondbacks was carted off the field during the top of the sixth after an awkward play in which he jumped out of the way of a diving Blaze Alexander.

It is awful timing for Gurriel who had just put together one of the best offensive months in Diamondbacks franchise history. He slashed .264/.306/.491 with seven home runs and 32 RBIs. The diagnosis for Gurriel is that it is a torn ACL and that means he will not only miss the remainder of this season, but he will miss a big part of the 2026 season as well. ACL injuries often take up to a year of recovery before the player can get back to full strength.

This also means he will not be pulling the trigger on an opt-out clause in his contract. He may not have opted out at the end of the season anyway as he was hitting just .248/.295/.418 this season with a wRC+ of just 94, although he does have 19 home runs on the year. It's unlikely he would have been able to cash in on the open market and his $13 million salary in 2026 might have been more than he was going to get anyway.

However, that is a moot point now as he will spend most of 2026 rehabbing this injury, with the hopes of rebounding for a strong year in 2027, which will be the last year of his current three-year, $42 million deal.

Gurriel was originally signed out of Cuba by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016. The Blue Jays gave the then 23-year-old Gurriel a $22 million, seven-year contract and he played with the Blue Jays until an offseason trade in the winter of 2022, when he was traded with Gabriel Moreno to the Diamondbacks in exchange for Daulton Varsho.