The 35-year-old has been out since being hit by a pitch in the head on July 28. He was placed on the seven-day concussion injured list on Aug. 1, and was originally expected to return to action with triple-A Buffalo on either Tuesday or Wednesday.<\/p>\n
However, Springer, who’s currently with the Bisons as he prepares for a brief rehab stint, has yet to join Buffalo’s starting lineup.<\/p>\n
“He’s feeling better every day,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said during an appearance on Blair and Barker on Friday. “He’s hitting, running, today he’s taking fly balls off a bat in the outfield. As soon as he can get clearance from the MLB, [he’ll] probably play in a game, see how he feels and go from there.”<\/p>\n
Although the Blue Jays set a franchise record for runs and hits in a three-game series during their trip to Denver from Monday to Wednesday, Springer’s bat will add another layer of depth to the lineup.<\/p>\n
In 101 games, he’s slashing .291\/.383\/.506 with 57 RBIs and is tied for a team-high with 18 home runs. <\/p>\n
Schneider added that second baseman Andres Gim\u00e9nez, another rehabbing Blue Jay who’s been out since July 4 with an ankle sprain, will play five to seven innings Friday for triple-A Buffalo.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, high-priced off-season signing Anthony Santander is in Florida, but has yet to resume swinging. “I think he’s close to hitting, but no real update there, but he’s feeling better,” Schneider said.<\/p>\n
Santander has been out of the lineup with a shoulder injury since May 29. The 30-year-old has played in just 50 games this season, hitting .179 with six homers and 18 RBIs. <\/p>\n
On the pitching side, starter Shane Bieber will pitch Saturday for triple-A Buffalo, and the goal is to reach 70-75 pitches. The Blue Jays’ prized trade deadline acquisition hasn’t played an MLB game this season as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery, but is getting close to joining the rotation.<\/p>\n
Schneider added that the ultimate goal is for Bieber to feel comfortable throwing 80-85 pitches, and that he’ll most likely get one more rehab start before discussing the next steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 35-year-old has been out since being hit by a pitch in the head on July 28. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-55832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}