Manager's post-game comments won't ease Blue Jays fan's concerns surrounding Scherzer

It feels like not a day has gone by over the last week in which the Toronto Blue Jays have been able to share some good news. That didn't change at all on Monday night (Apr. 6) when Max Scherzer was removed from his start with the LA Dodgers after only throwing two innings. There was immediate concern when Scherzer did not return to the mound in the third and, at worse, fans were hoping he was dealing with a flu that has been going around the clubhouse.

But it wasn't the flu that kept Scherzer from going back out onto the field. It was something more concerning and manager John Schneider revealed the details in his post-game comments, saying that Scherzer was actually dealing with forearm tendonitis.

Scherzer leaves game early due to a forearm issue

Schneider also told reporters that he is, "fairly to quite fairly confident he'll (Scherzer) make his next start." That's because the Blue Jays knew about the issue before the game and after two innings they decided they wanted to be extra cautious with the 41-year-old future Hall of Famer.

That led to the Blue Jays relying on Josh Fleming, who they just called up from the minors, to enter the game in the third inning. It was a string of relievers from that point in which Joe Mantiply, Tommy Nance and Spencer Miles followed in a 14-2 loss to the Dodgers. The only "pitcher" that didn't allow a run in the game was Tyler Heineman, the Blue Jays' catcher who has now pitched in two games already this season through the first ten games of the year. Heineman pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to bring his season ERA down to 15.00 - which is only a shade worse than Fleming (12.00) and Mantiply (13.50).

But what makes the Scherzer injury concerning is that with the rash of injuries the Blue Jays are currently dealing with, two innings out of Scherzer was apparently better than using an opener or calling someone else up from the minors to make a start. Scherzer also spoke to reporters after the game and said, "I don't think it's a major issue, just something that needs to be addressed. My mind is I'm going to be making my next start."

But Blue Jays fans have heard similar words before. Last season, Scherzer left his first start of the year to deal with an issue in his thumb that at the time was deemed fairly insignificant, but ended up keeping him out until July. At this point, fans will just have to trust that Scherzer and Schneider are telling the truth about the tendinitis at that they aren't losing another starting pitcher for the foreseeable future so early in the season.