John Gibbons says the Toronto Blue Jays expect to have Adam Lind back in the lineup this weekend.
Appearing on Baseball Central on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, the Blue Jays manager added that Lind has been swinging the bat well and is not feeling any ill effects from the foot injury that sidelined him for the past month.
“The fact that Brett (Lawrie) is down again now, we’re looking to beef up our team,” Gibbons told Ben Ennis and Joe Siddall Thursday. “We’ve been waiting on the return of these guys. The worst case scenario is we get him (at) the beginning of next week. ”
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The 31-year-old Lind, who began a rehab assignment Thursday, has not played with the Blue Jays since July 7 when he suffered a non-displaced fracture in his right foot. In 61 games this season, he batted .320/.389/.489 with four home runs, 27 RBI and a wins above replacement (via FanGraphs) of 1.0.
Meanwhile, Gibbons says the Blue Jays will need to be more careful with injured slugger Edwin Encarnacion, who suffered a setback in his recovery from a quad injury at the end of last month.
“He’s moving around and taking (batting practice) and fielding some ground balls,” Gibbons said. “He’s been running on a treadmill and moving around a little bit, but we have to be real cautious because it was a leg injury. With Brett it was a finger so he was physically able to do all the other stuff. “
Gibbons didn’t want to put a specific timetable on his return, but added that a reasonable expectation would be to expect him back in the next “couple of weeks.”
Encarnacion, 31, is batting .277/.368/.591 with 26 home runs, 70 RBI and a WAR of 2.8 in 88 games but has not played since July 5.