Saunders close to joining Jays
AL EAST: Yankees pounce on mistakes by Toronto’s bullpen to beat the visitors 4-3
NEW YORK — Michael Saunders has been running well on his surgically repaired knee and is scheduled to begin a minor-league rehab assignment on Thursday, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons says.
Saunders is set to start in left field for the Class A Dunedin Blue Jays when they open their Florida State League season in Clearwater. Gibbons said there is no specific timetable for Saunders to join the big club’s lineup, but he definitely will not play this weekend in Baltimore.
“They say when he runs, you’d never know he had a problem,” Gibbons said before Toronto’s disappointing 4-3 loss to the Yankees on Wednesday, dropping their record to 1-1, same as the Yankees.
Saunders’ problem occurred in late February when he stepped on a sprinkler head at a spring training practice field and tore the cartilage in his left knee. He underwent surgery to remove about 60 per cent of the cartilage, but walked out of the operating room under his own power and started rehab exercises shortly thereafter. He played in a series of minor-league games in spring training, but did not run when he hit the ball.
He began running in the past week.
Gibbons said the Jays’ medical and training staff believe Saunders will not experience lingering or recurrent problems with his knee.
“From everything I‘ve been told, I don’t think it’ll bother him,” Gibbons said.
“There may be some days he’s sore but they don’t think it’ll affect his running or anything like that.”
When Saunders is ready to join the Jays, they will likely reduce their bullpen from eight to seven pitchers, Gibbons said. That will likely mean they will place Liam Hendriks on waivers, hoping that no other club claims him so they can send him to Triple-A Buffalo.
Saunders was expected to be the opening-day left-fielder after the Jays acquired him for J.A. Happ in an offseason trade with Seattle.
As for Wednesday’s game, Chase Headley hit a tiebreaking single that deflected off the wrist of reliever Brett Cecil as New York rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to beat the Jays.
Michael Pineda pitched six solid innings for the Yankees on a frigid night, while Jacoby Ellsbury scored twice and reached base safely all four times up.
New York took advantage of mistakes by Toronto’s bullpen, fighting back from a two-run deficit after knuckleballer R.A. Dickey gave the Blue Jays 6 ⅓ effective innings.
Andrew Miller worked a perfect ninth for the save in his Yankees debut.
The two clubs are slated to wrap up the three-game series Thursday night when Jays rookie hurler Daniel Norris takes on Yankees ace CC Sabathia.