Scary injury prematurely ends Blue Jays minor league game 

On Friday night, a scary incident took place for one of the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor league teams. In the matchup between the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons and the New York Mets’ Triple-A affiliate Syracuse Mets, the game had to be called due to a concerning injury to Bisons’ catcher Payton Henry.

During the bottom of the seventh inning, after the Mets took a 4-2 lead on a bases-loaded walk to first baseman Mike Brosseau, third baseman Pablo Reyes came to the plate and swung at a first-pitch fastball that was delivered by Bisons’ reliever Connor Cooke. Unfortunately, the follow-through of Reyes’ swing caught the back of the head of Henry, and he quickly went down in distress.

Henry eventually had to be carted off the field and was taken by ambulance to a nearby Syracuse hospital for further evaluation and treatment. On the positive side of things, it was noted that he was alert and responsive.

The Jays signed Henry to a minor league contract this past offseason to add catching depth to the organization. He had spent his previous seven seasons within the Miami Marlins and Milwaukee Brewers organizations and has appeared in 20 MLB games to date. The 26-year-old had been putting together a decent season with the Bisons this year, compiling a .244 batting average, .704 OPS, along with 12 runs scored, 3 home runs and 17 RBI in 24 games played while sharing the catching duties with Brian Serven and Max McDowell.

With both teams visibly shaken by the incident, the game officials did the right thing by calling off the match, which ended up as a 4-2 Mets win over the Bisons. But more importantly now in everyone’s minds will be the seriousness and health concern of Henry’s injury as they await further for his news and test results.

Here, we send our well wishes to Payton, with sincere hopes that he has a speedy recovery and will be back in action in the near future.