Yimi Garcia gave John Schneider a less encouraging update Tuesday after his first rehab outing left him dealing with extra elbow soreness.
The Blue Jays are pushing back Garcia's next rehab appearance by at least a couple of days based on how he is feeling. The club still hopes he can get back into a game later this week.
That is not a shutdown, but it is a step back. For a bullpen that has been waiting on one of its most trusted late-game arms, even a short delay carries some weight.
Garcia made his first rehab outing Thursday in the rookie-level Florida Complex League. He retired 2 of the 4 batters he faced before the Blue Jays had to reassess how his elbow responded afterward.
The issue was not the outing itself. It was the soreness that followed, which was more than the Blue Jays expected at this stage of his recovery.
That is why Toronto is slowing him down instead of trying to force the next appearance onto the schedule. With elbow recoveries, the day after can tell a team more than the inning itself.
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Toronto still hopes Garcia can pitch later this week
There is still some calm in this update. The Blue Jays have not pulled Garcia off his rehab assignment, and the hope remains that he can return to game action later this week.
That matters because Garcia had been trending the right way before this snag. RotoWire reported that he was closing in on a return, with the final week of May viewed as a possible activation window if the rehab process stayed clean.
Instead, the timeline just got a little softer. Not wrecked, not reset completely, but softened enough that the Blue Jays have to wait another few days before feeling comfortable again.
Garcia has been on the shelf all season after undergoing an elbow cleanup procedure in September. That background is why the club is not going to wave away extra soreness this deep into May.
For Schneider, the frustration is easy to understand. Toronto's pitching staff has already been stretched in multiple spots, and Garcia is the kind of veteran reliever who can settle the middle and late innings fast when healthy.
The good news is that the Blue Jays still sound more cautious than alarmed. They are talking about days, not a brand-new shutdown.
Still, this is not the update Toronto wanted. Yimi Garcia was finally back in games, and now the Blue Jays are back waiting to see whether a minor stumble stays minor.
Should the Blue Jays stay extra cautious with Yimi Garcia after this rehab setback?
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