The Blue Jays announced that infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left knee sprain. Infielder Leo Jimenez has been recalled in a corresponding move and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Kiner-Falefa, 29, was a late scratch from yesterday’s game. Manager John Schneider said that the infielder “felt something” which “popped up out of nowhere” during his pre-game stretches, per Hazel Mae of Sportsnet on X. It’s unclear how much time the Jays expect him to miss but the injury is significant enough that he’ll require an IL stint.
Signed to a two-year deal in the offseason, IKF has been having the best campaign of his career thus far. He has always been a glove-first utility guy but had hit just .261/.314/.346 coming into the year for an 81 wRC+. Though much has gone wrong for the Jays here in 2024, Kiner-Falefa’s deal has been a nice development, as he has hit .292/.338/.420 for a wRC+ of 117. He’s done that while playing the three infield positions to the left of first base and one inning in center field as well. His 2.0 wins above replacement are currently leading the team, according to the calculations at FanGraphs.
It’s a less than ideal development for the Jays, who have fallen back in the American League playoff picture. Though many contenders have been bunched up in the Wild Card race for a lot of the year, the Jays have slipped to 38-46, tied with the Tigers and Rangers and eight games out of the last postseason spot. With the trade deadline less than a month away, the club will need a serious hot streak to avoid a summer selloff, which will be harder to do without one of their more productive players on the season. If the summer selloff does end up coming to pass, there would also be an argument for selling high on IKF, though that could perhaps be less likely now, depending on how things develop in the next few weeks.
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