Blue Jays Place Hernandez on 10-Day IL With Oblique Strain; Recall Katoh From Triple-A
It’s a sad day for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Prior to first pitch at Yankee Stadium, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez was placed on the 10-day injured list with an oblique strain, the club announced Thursday.
Hernandez, 29, suffered the injury during his third at-bat of Wednesday’s 6-4 victory over the New York Yankees. He was seen hobbling to first base before exiting the game.
Unfortunately, this is a major blow to Toronto’s offence as Hernandez was off to an impressive start to the 2022 season.
Through six games, the right-hander had 23 plate appearances, hitting one home run, three RBIs and sported a .316/.435/.526 slash line. He also posted a 175 wRC+ score during this same span.
In a corresponding move, the Blue Jays recalled infielder Gosuke Katoh from triple-A Buffalo, and have made him active for Thursday’s series finale.
The 27-year-old made his long-awaited MLB debut earlier this season when he was substituted into the game as a pinch-runner on Apr. 9. Before then, he logged 763 career minor league games from 2013-2021.
Without Hernandez, the Blue Jays are expected to fill that void with a combination of Raimel Tapia and Bradley Zimmer. In all likelihood, George Springer and Cavan Biggio are likely to spend some time in right field, as well.
Toronto will conclude its four-game series in New York on Thursday, before heading home to begin a weekend set against the Oakland Athletics on Friday.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @ThomasHall85
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.