DUNEDIN, Fla. – Josh Donaldson will receive daily treatment and evaluation on a right calf strain that kept him from participating in the club’s first full-squad workout of the spring, but the Toronto Blue Jays anticipate that he’ll be ready for the regular season.
The injury was diagnosed during an MRI on Saturday after the all-star third baseman felt what general manager Ross Atkins described as “a small tweak” while running the previous day.
Atkins, speaking before the team announced the results, noted that there’s concern any time a player suffers any sort of injury before adding a caveat as it pertains to Donaldson.
“What I can tell you is that Josh does a very good job of taking care of himself, he’s put himself in a great position this off-season, he’s in really good shape and he also recovers very well,” said Atkins. “When you factor all that in it mitigates the concern to some extent.”
Donaldson suffered a right calf strain in the Blue Jays’ fourth game of the regular season last year, exiting a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the seventh inning after hitting a weak chopper and struggling to run to first.
He didn’t miss a game and played 155 contests in all, fighting through thumb and hip troubles, as well.
Asked if Donaldson’s tweak might be connected to his previous calf troubles, Atkins replied: “We’ll certainly dig into that and look for any resource we can find to ensure it doesn’t happen again. But we don’t feel that there’s reason to believe it is.”
Catcher Russell Martin also missed the workout due to a fever.
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