‘I’ll never stop fighting ’
be an all star.”
After a slow April, Travis caught fire at the plate in May as the Jays made up massive ground following the miserable start. He led the majors with 16 doubles in May while riding a 13-game hitting streak, the longest of any Jays player this season.
Those results were the product of both his talent and the work he put in during the winter and spring. To see Travis in Dunedin this March was to see a talented athlete driven to become an impact player for his team.
“You think about everything you did in the off season and obviously coming off an injury last year, the year before as well … it’s tough,” Travis said, his voice cracking. “It’s part of my emotions running out of me right now. All those hard days of work just doing all I could to get back on the field because I wanted to be there for the team.
“And now to end up in a little bit of the same spot again …”
Travis has certainly been bitten by the injury bug and was hoping to avoid the DL for the first season in his career. In 2016, he missed the first 47 games due to off-season shoulder surgery and in his rookie 2015 season was on the DL twice with shoulder troubles.
While the latest setback obviously happened at some point during a weekend series against the New York Yankees back at the Rogers Centre, Travis has no clue what triggered it.
His first indication was when he woke upon landing in California.
“I got up and my knee was locked up and it hurt to bend it,” Travis said. “I was just hoping it was from the pressure of being high up in the air.
“I was scared. I didn’t know when to say something. I just went to bed that night, hoping that I would wake up in the morning and it would loosen up. It didn’t.”
Travis said he will meet with team officials and medical staff over the next couple of days and discuss the rehab process, though it’s expected he will miss multiple weeks.
In the meantime, Gibbons said that he’ll have Tuesday’s starter Ryan Goins platoon at second with Darwin Barney until Travis can return. In a corresponding move, the team recalled right-handed reliever Dominic Leone to fill the roster spot of Travis and add some depth to the bullpen.
Regardless of how long it takes him to recuperate and fuelled by that momentous month of May, Travis vowed to be back.
“I’ve been through a lot of stuff at this point in my career,” Travis said. “I always fight back. I’ll never stop fighting. I love this game.
“Bone bruise … I hate that word. It sounds so simple, hurts so bad.”