Blue Jays: Latest injury updates on Zach Pop and Danny Jansen

Amidst all the frantic transactions that have taken place on Tuesday in Toronto Blue Jays Land, there was mixed news for a couple of Blue Jays players that have been placed on the IL this past month and that have been working on their rehab recently.

Reliever Zach Pop, who has been out since May 5th with a right hamstring strain, had his second rehab outing last Friday with the Dunedin Blue Jays where he worked a scoreless inning as his return to the Jays bullpen appeared imminent. Unfortunately, following the appearance, Jays manager John Schneider announced that Pop suffered a setback as he felt some discomfort in his hamstring. As a result, he has headed back to Toronto for further evaluation.

On the other hand, for Jays catcher Danny Jansen, who was placed on the 10-day injured list back on May 26th (retroactive to May 25th) with a left groin strain, Schneider said he was trending in the right direction, so that provided good news for the Jays’ brass. Especially seeing how Jansen was doing sprints like this on Monday definitely showed encouraging signs that he should be back pretty soon with the ballclub.

For the season, Pop is 1-1 with a 6.59 ERA, 1.244 WHIP, giving up 10 earned runs including four home runs, to go along with six walks and 14 strikeouts. He started off the season strong, but struggled in the few outings prior to his injury.

On the flip side, Jansen struggled out of the gate in 2023, but was finally turning things around when he hit the injured list. On the year, Jansen is hitting .207, with an OPS of .686, with 16 runs scored, six home runs and 26 RBI. Meanwhile, Alejandro Kirk has done an admirable job holding the fort behind the plate while Jansen has been out.

Hopefully Pop’s issue is just something minor in his reevaluation, so that both him and Jansen can rejoin the Blue Jays in the coming week or two if all goes well.