NEW YORK – The news for the Toronto Blue Jays on Troy Tulowitzki is as good as can be under the circumstances – there’s a chance the star shortstop could return to play this year. Team doctors believe it’s possible he recovers enough from the small crack in his left scapula, or shoulder blade, in 2-3 weeks to retake the field right around playoff time.
Can you imagine a heroic return in time for October?
Of course that all depends on how quickly Tulowitzki heals, and whether the pain he’s in right now subsides enough to give him the range of motion he’ll need to be effective in the field and at the plate. There are plenty of hurdles to clear before that happens, and no one should take his return in 2015 as a given.
One way or another, the Blue Jays are facing their sternest bout of adversity since beefing up at the trade deadline.
"If you look back in history, all teams who won a World Series or made it deep into the playoffs faced adversity, whether guys missed time or things just didn’t play out the way they thought it would," said Tulowitzki on Sunday. "That’s part of the game. Hopefully, this will be something that just makes our story that much more special."
Perhaps, but for now the Blue Jays aren’t taking any chances, picking up gifted defensive infielder Darwin Barney from the Los Angeles Dodgers for cash or a player to be named. Barney won’t be eligible for the post-season because he joined the organization after Aug. 31, but can provide plus fielding in the interim, giving manager John Gibbons the option to hit for Cliff Pennington or Ryan Goins in key spots without sacrificing any defence.
"It’s something I take a lot of pride in," said Barney.
That’s a good thing, as the Blue Jays will need all the help they can get to cover for Tulowitzki, hurt during the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the New York Yankees in a collision with Kevin Pillar. Even if he’d been slumping at the plate, he provided a presence for opposing pitchers to worry about while also delivering sturdy, elite defence up the middle and a professional presence in the clubhouse.
"The fact that there’s a chance he’s back for October is certainly good news," said GM Alex Anthopoulos. "Any time you have a type of serious injury you’re worried, but the one thing is we have the depth from a defensive standpoint. You’re going to lose the bat and obviously what he brings, the intangibles, but I talked to him early. He’s going to be around the team, and what he brings to the clubhouse is still going to be there. I still expect us to be a very good defensive team."
The Blue Jays should be fine offensively even without Tulowitzki, but let’s not overstate things – his bat will be missed.
What hurts for the team is the freak nature of it all – a no-man’s land collision in shallow centre on a harmless pop-up, Pillar’s chin catching Tulowitzki’s scapula in just the right way to cause a crack, the terrible timing.
Speaking about the matter Saturday night, Pillar described the play as the worst thing he’s experienced in baseball. Tulowitzki described Pillar as a friend simply doing his job.
"I respect the way he plays," said Tulowitzki. "There are two guys who are obviously very aggressive, I was going back, felt like maybe I was camped, he’s coming in hard and we happened to collide. It’s not the first time I’ve collided with an outfielder. It does happen, unfortunately this time someone got hurt."
That someone was him, crumpling to the ground awkwardly after taking the contact.
"I don’t know what I felt – just a lot of pain," he recalled. "I’m not quite sure what it was, it just kind of buckled me a little bit."
For now the next step is rest while the Blue Jays medical staff looks for other approaches used with athletes suffering similar injuries. There’s talk of another MRI or CT Scan in two weeks to determine how much healing has taken place.
Tulowitzki is taking the most optimistic possibilities in stride.
"I don’t want to put a timeframe on myself because I know myself and if I do that, I’m going to be itching at the bit," he said. "If I do need that extra time, it would be wise for me to take it and wait until I’m 100 per cent healthy. Time will tell everything. As we go on, we’ll know where we are in the standings, we’ll know how my body is feeling and then we can make some decisions."
There will be tough ones for the Blue Jays if he’s unable to return.
Goins and Pennington will obviously be on the playoff roster should the Blue Jays make it, but as things stand now, Munenori Kawasaki would be the backup infielder, which shouldn’t make you happy. Barring a sudden change, Devon Travis isn’t making enough progress with his shoulder injury to factor and the organization is bereft of other options.
The Blue Jays now have an unwanted test they must pass.