Blue Jays Place George Springer On 10-Day IL, Select Eloy Jimenez

The Blue Jays announced that George Springer has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to fracture in his left big toe.  Eloy Jimenez‘s contract was selected from Triple-A in the corresponding move, as he’ll take Springer’s spot on the 26-man roster and an open spot on Toronto’s 40-man roster.

The IL placement is no surprise after Springer sustained the injury yesterday, fouling a ball off his foot during an at-bat in the third inning.  Springer joins Alejandro Kirk (thumb surgery) and Addison Barger (ankle sprain) as other position players who have been sidelined since Opening Day, plus Anthony Santander is out until at least late July after undergoing shoulder surgery in February.

In more positive news, manager John Schneider told Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae and other reporters that Springer may not need more than the minimum 10 days to recover.  The IL placement was something of an early-season precaution for a veteran player, as Schneider noted that “George has played through stuff a lot since he’s been here.  I don’t want a toe to compromise anything else.  He’s got one speed that he plays at, and we can weather the storm with him and other guys for now.”

The Jays figure to use multiple players in the DH role while Springer is out, and Jimenez is the designated hitter (batting seventh in the lineup) for today’s game with the Twins.  This marks Jimenez’s first Major League game since Sept. 21, 2024 when Jimenez was playing with the Orioles, as the former Silver Slugger winner spent all of 2025 in the minors with the Rays and Blue Jays.

As it has become increasingly common for teams to sign star prospects to extensions prior to their MLB debuts, Jimenez was a trendsetter in this regard, as the White Sox inked him to a six-year, $43MM guarantee just prior to the 2019 season.  At the time, it was the largest contract ever given to a prospect before his first big league game, and Jimenez’s 31-homer rookie season in 2019 and Silver Slugger performance in the abbreviated 2020 made it seem like the Sox had scored a bargain.

Unfortunately, injuries then took their toll, as Jimenez played in only 259 of a possible 486 games for Chicago over the 2021-23 seasons.  Jimenez still posted strong numbers in 2022 when he was able to play, but his production dropped off on the whole, and he finished with a .238/.289/.336 slash line over 349 plate appearances with the Sox and Orioles in 2024, after Chicago dealt him to Baltimore at the trade deadline.

Jimenez didn’t hit much in the minors in 2025, and he has a modest .257/.372/.371 over 43 PA with Triple-A Buffalo this season.  The 29-year-old did hit well in Spring Training, and also got a lot of work at first base — tellingly, the Jays listed Jimenez as a first baseman/DH in their official announcement today.  This means that the Blue Jays could be comfortable using Jimenez at first base if Vladimir Guerrero Jr. gets a DH day or two during Springer’s absence.