TORONTO — Reporters entering John Gibbons’ office Tuesday for his daily pre-game scrum with reporters were met by an unexpected guest seated next to the Blue Jays manager: GM Alex Anthopoulos.
Over the next 25 minutes, the two men took turns answering a variety of questions on the state of the current club, in addition to providing updates on several injured players at the major and minor league levels.
With the big club, both Adam Lind (back) and Edwin Encarnacion (left hamstring) were out of the lineup Tuesday for the second straight game.
Encarnacion is day-to-day while Lind hopes to return to action Wednesday.
Meanwhile, J.P. Arencibia was given the night off as he deals with a sore shoulder he jammed during a collision this past weekend in Boston.
Here’s what Anthopoulos had to say on the status of several other members of the Blue Jays organization:
J.A. HAPP: “He threw live batting practice, his arm feels great. It just comes down to the knee. He won’t start a rehab assignment until the soreness in the knee is completely gone.”
When will we know when he might be back?
“Once he doesn’t feel anything at all (in the knee). He’s throwing right now. He’ll get up in the morning and be a little sore (in the knee) but once he gets going, it starts going away. But until that pain is completely gone, he won’t start an actual rehab assignment.”
BRANDON MORROW (Forearm strain): “Finally has no pain at all. He threw to 60 feet today, he’s going to do 90 feet tomorrow. Now that the soreness has completely gone we can get going on a throwing program. Next step would obviously be a rehab assignment.”
Does that equate to a return date of early August?
“Yeah, I think it’s fair to say. You have a month of rehab assignment available and we haven’t even started that yet. It might be at the end of July, but I would think you’re looking at late July, but probably early August at this point.”
KYLE DRABEK (Tommy John surgery): “We’re just going to watch his innings. We’ve capped him at two innings. He’s in the Florida State League, scheduled to throw (Tuesday). He’ll probably be optioned to the Florida State League (once his rehab assignment is up and he’s returned to the 40-man roster).”
DREW HUTCHISON (Tommy John surgery): “He’s been throwing bullpens and live BPs. He’ll be 12 months, post-op (Tommy John surgery) the beginning of August, so we’ll probably get him on a rehab assignment here soon. It’s getting close.”
LUIS PEREZ (Tommy John surgery): “He’s doing better. He had a bit of a flare-up, so now he’s just throwing bullpens and sides. We want to be careful with him just because he did have the setback early, and it wasn’t severe, but we just weren’t going to take any chances. He had been built up to go two innings and then he had some soreness in his elbow.
“He may begin a rehab assignment, but again, we’re going to be 100 per cent sure on him. He’s probably still pretty far away.”
RAMON ORTIZ (Elbow strain): “He’s feeling better. It’s just recovery and you have to let it calm down. He’s not close to starting a rehab assignment.
SERGIO SANTOS (Elbow surgery): “He’s supposed to start his rehab assignment tonight so we’ll see how he does. He feels great, has been throwing ‘pens and things like that.”
BRETT LAWRIE (Sprained ankle): Did you rush him back earlier this year?
“We did. I don’t think it’s a theory. We did. We acknowledged it at the time. I think we only gave him two games in the Florida State league. We had a need for his glove at the time. Ideally, we would have given him more time, from a defensive standpoint we were really hurting at the corner spot and just decided we’d try to have him work through his timing here and at least we knew defensively he was going to help, but the bat obviously didn’t come along.
“The defence (here) overall has stabilized itself. Izturis has been playing great. He’s made some great plays at third and DeRosa has been fine when he’s been over there. I think we have time with Brett. I think with Brett we’ll just get him as many at-bats as we can. It’s a 20-day assignment, he started it on Wednesday of last week, so you’re still looking at another two weeks that we can take a look at him.”
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Anthopoulos also spent time Tuesday discussing some prospects that have caught his eye in the first half of 2013…
KEVIN PILLAR: “He was always a good hitter, late round draft pick and has really just continued to hit everywhere he’s been. He’s gone up to triple-A. He was at New Hampshire doing well and the reports are he’s ready to come up if we ever had a need. He’s playing that well.
“I saw him for a little bit. I plan to go back and see him again. He’s probably been the one that’s really taken a big jump.
JOHN STILSON: He’s a reliever that we like quite a bit. Took him in the third round a few years ago. Got to New Hampshire last year, I think he had an ERA in the fives (5.04 to be precise), he’s up to 98 with a great changeup and a pretty good slider. He’s having a good year. He’s really jumped forward.”
A.J. JIMENEZ: He was hurt last year, we liked him in the past. Finally he’s completely healthy and someone that’s having a great year in New Hampshire defensively. I’ve talked to some of our guys, starters and relievers, and they said they haven’t thrown to anybody better than him.
“His arm strength is starting to come back. It’s not all the way there, but defensively it can shut down guys that run on him. I think with everyone that’s defence-first, you get the Molina comparisons, but it’s that type of glove. He’s that good defensively. We’re pretty excited about him.”
MARCUS STROMAN: “He’s been great as well. He’s someone that when we drafted him, we really had a split camp; some people thought he’d excel in the bullpen, some people thought he’d excel as a starter. We had needs in the bullpen so we moved him that way, but as a starter, he’s been great, up to 96, as athletic as you’re going to get for someone on the mound.
“The changeup is really starting to come on and that’s something he didn’t really use in college much. He’s scheduled to pitch (Tuesday).”
AARON SANCHEZ: “Scheduled to start (Tuesday). He’s back off the DL, we just took it conservatively. His velocity is back up to 98 and the stuff was still there so he’s back on track. He’s good to go with no restrictions and hopefully we get him up to New Hampshire by the end of the year.”
MATT SMORAL: “He had a blister on his hand that took a little time to resolve itself. His stuff is still great and again, we have high hopes for him, but he’s young like all those kids we took out of high school (D.J. Davis), (Mitch Nay), (Chase DeJong) we think highly about all these guys, it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”
