Borucki setback leaves Blue Jays scrambling to find answers on mound

Ryan Borucki spoke about feeling some discomfort in his elbow and why he made the easy decision to shut down his outing in spring training for the Blue Jays.

DUNEDIN, Fla. – The elbow discomfort Ryan Borucki experienced in his last outing calls for obvious caution, especially given what he’s already overcome in his career. Skipping him for at least one turn of the Toronto Blue Jays rotation when the regular season opens next week is the logical starting point, and we’ll see whether his absence extends beyond that.

“I truly think (it will only be one start),” Borucki said Saturday morning, after manager Charlie Montoyo revealed the injury. “I’m feeling great the last couple of days. I feel a lot better. Monday we’ll just re-evaluate and then just go from there.”

That’s certainly the best-case scenario, as the Blue Jays are already scrambling to fill a bullpen that at the moment has only three spots guaranteed – closer Ken Giles, righty Joe Biagini and lefty Tim Mayza.

Montoyo named Trent Thornton, Sean Reid-Foley, Thomas Pannone and Sam Gaviglio as options to cover the start Borucki will miss, which is fine, but all save for Reid-Foley were out of necessity being considered for the bullpen, as well.

Gaviglio is seen as more of a long-man option for the bullpen, which potentially pushes the relief corps up to four. As long as Bud Norris’s scheduled inning goes off without issue Sunday – the Blue Jays gave him a retention bonus Saturday – he’d potentially make it five. That would leave Javy Guerra, Justin Shafer, Danny Barnes, Rule 5 pick Elvis Luciano and Jason Adam, plus whomever doesn’t cover for Borucki, as candidates for the other spots.

These are puzzle pieces with no obvious fit.

[relatedlinks]

And one way or another John Axford, diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right elbow earlier this week, won’t be in the mix, as the Blue Jays released him from his minor-league contract.

Thornton got an important look Saturday with a Blue Jays split-squad in Tampa against a strong New York Yankees lineup, allowing a three-run homer to Gleyber Torres in the first and nothing else in 3.2 innings of work. He gave up four hits and two walks with four strikeouts.

The Blue Jays plan to play things out to the wire, with Reid-Foley starting Sunday’s Florida finale against the Detroit Tigers, Gaviglio taking the ball Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers in Montreal and Pannone getting the call Tuesday.

They also need to decide between Eric Sogard and Richard Urena for the backup infielder role.

All of which leaves the Blue Jays scrambling to find pitching wherever they can, even with Clay Buchholz working toward readiness, and hoping desperately that Borucki’s absence is indeed a short one. Not only is he a potential core piece moving forward, he was also one of their few reliable starters last year.

The soon-to-be 25-year-old lefty pulled himself from a minor-league game Wednesday when he “felt a little bit of discomfort in the back of my elbow” as a precaution since “I’ve had two elbow surgeries, so I don’t really mess around with my elbow.”

In the days since Borucki has been trying to figure out “what’s good pain and what’s bad pain,” and while he didn’t confirm that he had an MRI – it’s believed he did have one – he said “it was nothing to really worry about.”

“I’ve done it in the past, I’ve banged the back of my elbow a little bit and I shut it down there, too,” Borucki said. “It just was like a week thing and got right back out. It’s a long season so I don’t really want to push anything right now.”

[snippet id=3305549]

The same goes for Buchholz, who after throwing 30 pitches in a minor-league game Friday, is set to work on a regular five-day schedule, with his workload increasing in increments of 15 each time out. GM Ross Atkins suggested Friday that an early April return as a possibility, which means he’d be ready in as little as four outings.

“As the game is changing, there aren’t too many times that I even threw 100 pitches last year and I felt good, really good,” said Buchholz. “It’s just about keeping your legs underneath you and after the 75-pitch game that I throw, I feel like I might need one more after that just depending on how everything goes, but other than that if my health is good. I will be ready to go.”

SHORT HOPS: Kevin Pillar started in right field against the Yankees, with Randal Grichuk sliding over into centre, even though the original lineup had them in their usual spots. Pillar last played right field in 2015, shortly before he took the everyday job in centre field from Dalton Pompey. … Clayton Richard was scheduled to start in Dunedin against the Canadian junior national team but he didn’t and it’s unclear why. He’s slated to pitch the Blue Jays’ fourth game of the season. … Blue Jays assistant GM Andrew Tinnish, who heads up the club’s international operations, and Ben Cherington, the club’s vice-president, baseball operations, are in the Dominican Republic. Earlier this month, the Blue Jays acquired $500,000 in international signing bonus pool room from the Baltimore Orioles for outfielder Dwight Smith Jr.

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.