Bautista continues to shoulder pain
Jays’ star gets cortisone shot in an attempt to return to outfield duty
It’s generally accepted that medicine is not an exact science and injuries heal at different speeds for different people. So when it comes to Jose Bautista’s nagging shoulder injury, it’s perhaps too much to expect anyone to provide a precise timeline for his return to right field.
That is small comfort for the Toronto Blue Jays and Bautista. And for fans too, some of whom — none with MD beside their names — have taken to social media to pose dark theories about why the team’s star slugger still has not recovered from a shoulder strain caused by a reckless throw to first base on April 21.
The normally strong-armed Bautista cannot throw. He received a cortisone shot on Sunday. A powerful anti-inflammatory, cortisone normally takes two or three days to do its work.
Manager John Gibbons said he expects Bautista to return to DH duty on Tuesday night.
Before receiving the injection, Bautista said he experienced “throbbing pain” at night and needed painkillers to get to sleep. “It was just time” to try something different, he told reporters Monday.
“I have inflammation inside the shoulder joint, which caused an impingement, and the inflammation was just too slow to subside,” he said. “The oral medicine didn’t work. We’re trying the least invasive but most aggressive mix (of treatment).”
That was the first time Bautista, or anyone connected with the team, had publicly mentioned an impingement, which is a narrowing of the channel through which a key shoulder tendon passes. Some impingements result from bone rubbing against muscle.
It is unclear exactly what sort of impingement Bautista has. The Jays do not allow their trainers or medical staff to talk to the media. But without a reduction in the inflammation, some impingements cause additional tearing to the tendon.
The Jays announced his original diagnosis as a strain, and a strain, however mild, is a tear.
Bautista has been confined to DH duty for more than a month. Assuming the cortisone injection works, he and Gibbons say they hope he will be ready to return to right field by next Monday in Washington, where the Jays will not be able to use a DH.
But that’s all they can do: hope.