CLEVELAND — Devon Travis’ season is over. The Blue Jays second baseman suffered a new injury in his already-damaged right knee during Friday’s ALCS opener and was removed from the Blue Jays roster Saturday, with Justin Smoak taking his place.
Travis has been battling a knee injury—officially diagnosed as a bone bruise—for weeks, and missed the final two games of the ALDS due to it. But after receiving a cortisone injection and passing a litany of tests earlier this week, the Blue Jays were cautiously optimistic Travis would be able to tolerate the pain he was in and get through the rest of the postseason.
But he came out of Friday night’s game in the fifth inning, unable to put any weight on his right leg after running to cover first base on a bunt. After the game, Travis said the discomfort in his knee was in the same area as his pre-existing bone bruise but worse. He described the pain as “super sharp” and said, “it kind of felt like it was giving out a little bit.”
Travis travelled to Toronto Saturday morning to have an MRI on the knee. Blue Jays doctors compared that MRI with another he had done last week and passed the information along to the MLB in order to clear his removal from the roster.
The damage in Travis’ knee must have been exacerbated during Friday’s game as, according to MLB rules, teams can only request permission to replace an injured player on their active roster during a postseason series “because of a specific injury or ailment that occurred after the club’s roster for such series had been submitted.”
Travis’ bone bruise was pre-existing. But on Saturday the MLB said in a statement, “Dr. Gary Green, MLB Medical Director, confirmed the injury after communicating with the evaluating physician, as well as reviewing the test imaging and Travis’ medical history.”
“There’s enough information to suggest that the injury has changed and there is more of an injury than just the bone bruise,” said Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins. “I don’t want to get into the specifics of it yet until we get more information as the swelling gets down and the inflammation get out of there. I’d rather have a much clearer picture. But there was enough information to suggest that the injury was new.”
Unless they’ve suffered a concussion, players removed from a postseason roster due to an injury are ineligible to return for the subsequent series. That rules Travis out for the World Series, should the Blue Jays make it there.
For now, the Blue Jays are not releasing details of Travis’ new injury or a recovery timeline. But Atkins did say he was “optimistic” Travis would be ready for 2017 spring training.
“They’re separate. The two injuries are isolated,” Atkins said. “They’re in the same area, but they’re two independent injuries. It’s not the same injury. There is a bone bruise. And then there’s a separate injury to his knee. I’m not hiding information here. I just would like to get a better understanding of it before I give you the specifics.”
A position player can only be replaced by another position player on a postseason roster, which is why Smoak was chosen to take Travis’ place. The switch-hitting first baseman just missed the original cut for the Blue Jays ALCS roster, and was left off in part because the team wanted to carry infielder Ryan Goins as insurance in case Travis went down.
Atkins said Travis was “crushed” by the news, a sentiment that is surely shared in the Blue Jays clubhouse.
“He’s a huge part of our team,” Blue Jays centre fielder Kevin Pillar said after Friday’s game. “He was doing anything and everything he can to get on the field. He was the first one here, last one to leave. He was doing treatment at the hotel. Whatever it takes to get out on the field. It’s sad to see.”
Going forward, the Blue Jays plan to use both right-handed hitter Darwin Barney and left-hander Ryan Goins at second base, determining playing time based on platoon advantages and prior history against the opposition’s starting pitcher.
“It’s no secret that having Devon in the lineup is something that’s really important to us. He’s one of our best hitters all around. It’s a big loss anytime he’s not in there,” Barney said. “Now, my job is to go out here, make some plays, do what I can to move runners, make positive outs if I’m going to make outs, and just try to keep this thing rolling.”
