The Toronto Blue Jays will be without one of their best power hitters for at least 15 days. For the second time in 2016, Jose Bautista has been placed on the disabled list.
Jose Bautista has been placed on the 15-day DL with a left knee sprain. OF Junior Lake has contract selected from @BuffaloBisons
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 10, 2016
This is certainly bad news for all parties involved. Bautista is in the final year of his contract and is not having the kind of season that will get him big money in the offseason.
He will be 36 in October, has been on the DL twice, and is slashing at .222/.349/.444. All of those numbers are down significantly from 2015 when he belted 40 homers while posting a .250/.377/.536 line.
This is also bad news for the Blue Jays. Bautista is certainly having a down year, but is easily third on the team in runs scored, runs batted in and home runs.
Toronto and the Baltimore Orioles are tied for the American League East lead. Whatever team is not leading the division leads the wild card race. Still, the Jays are only 2.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers, who sit in third place in the wild card race.
At the very least, Bautista will miss entire series against the Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians and part of a series against the Los Angeles Angels.