Toronto Blue Jays star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will miss the team’s opener against the Houston Astros due to soreness in his right hand. Guerrero Jr. took a 97 mph Gerrit Cole fastball off his fingers during the Blue Jays 8-1 loss to the New York Yankees Sunday night.
The slugger was scratched from Toronto’s lineup prior to the matchup with Houston because of discomfort in his fourth/fifth finger, via Keegan Matheson of MLB.com.
Cole has battled elbow inflammation since spring training, which pushed his season debut back to mid June. He was making just his third start of the year when he hit Guerrero Jr. on a 2-2 count in the bottom of the third inning.
The reigning Cy Young winner has already hit two batters in just 13 innings pitched this season. However, he only plunked seven hitters in 209 innings during his magnificent 2023 campaign. The year before, only two batters were hit by Cole over 200.2 innings.
Clearly unintentional, Cole could be seen nodding in apology to Vladdy as the wounded slugger took first base. Guerrero Jr. nodded in return, seeming to indicate that he accepted the Yankee ace’s apology.
Guerrero Jr. gutted out a few more innings Sunday night, eventually being replaced by a pinch hitter in the eighth.
The loss pushed the Blue Jays a demoralizing 14.5 games out of first place in the AL East and 7.5 games out of a Wild Card spot.
For the opener against the Astros, which falls on Canada Day (sort of the Canadian equivalent of the fourth of July), the Blue Jays will shift second baseman Spencer Horwitz over to first to fill in for Guerrero Jr., batting him second in the lineup.
Horwitz has played well in 19 games this season, sporting an OPS+ of 168. Still, he won’t be able to fill the void left by Vladdy, who had a Toronto franchise record six-game streak of multiple RBI snapped Sunday against New York.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. out of Blue Jays lineup with sore hand
Guerrero Jr. is heating up in the midst of a lost season. After a sluggish start, he’s got his average up to .297 and has hit six homers in his last nine games, bringing his season total up to 13, to go along with 50 RBI and an OPS+ of 141.
There has been talk that the Blue Jays might move either Guerrero Jr, 25, or 26-year-old shortstop Bo Bichette — or both — at the MLB trade deadline. Once considered untouchable, foundational pieces that Toronto would build around for years to come, Bichette’s struggles this season along with the team’s vanishing hopes of making the postseason (and a payroll north of $223 million) might force the Blue Jays brass to reconsider.
While Guerrero Jr. would unquestionably fetch the higher price in a deal that moves him out of Canada, Bichette appears the more likely of the two to actually be dealt.
After a stint on the injured list with a right calf strain, the standout shortstop has only managed to go 3-21 with one extra base hit since his return to the lineup.
Now, with Guerrero Jr. out – fortunately X-rays on his injured hand were negative – there’s likely to be even more pressure on Bichette to figure things out at the plate.
Making matters worse, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who took over second so Horwitz could man first, was also an injury scratch for Toronto’s opener against Houston with a left knee ailment, per Sportsnet.
Outfielder Davis Schneider shifted to second to fill in for the fill in Kiner-Falefa, as the team shuffles to cover Guerrero Jr.’s absence. Should Bichette and the rest of the Blue Jays continue to struggle, major moves at the deadline, which falls on July 30, become more likely.
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