George Springer’s potential injury comes at an awful time for the Blue Jays

There’s never a good time to lose a star player from the lineup, but George Springer’s potential injury on Monday night comes at an awful time for the Blue Jays.

First and foremost, the most important thing is that it looks like Springer avoided what could have been a horrific injury when he was struck on the helmet by a fastball from Kade Strowd, silencing the crowd for a few minutes before the veteran slugger was able to walk off the field with the training staff. Even if his helmet saved him from a situation that could have been worse, there’s a real possibility that Springer could miss some time with a concussion after a blow to the head like that.

As of this writing, it’s still too early to know where things stand with the 35-year-old, and, to be frank, the timing of his questionable status is far from ideal. I mostly say that because concussions can be a very volatile injury to recover from, and predicting a timeline for a return to play comes with a lot of variables. Sometimes players can quickly recover from head injuries and return after a week or two. In other cases, it can take weeks, months, or sometimes even longer before a player can return to the field, and coming back too early comes with significant risks.

For example, we don’t have to look back very far to what happened with Anthony Rizzo last year when his concussion diagnosis was missed and he continued to try and play for a while. The injury completely derailed Rizzo’s 2025 season, and ultimately his career, as he couldn’t find a suitor to take another chance on him for this season at 35 years old. Had his concussion been handled properly, Rizzo is probably still an active big leaguer.

With that in mind, the Blue Jays can’t and won’t push Springer to return to the lineup until he’s ready, and it’s hard to say when that will be. This team has shown incredible resilience this season while dealing with injuries, and while Springer has been an important piece of the 2025 puzzle, I’m confident the next man up can contribute in the short term. However, if the former World Series MVP is going to be out for a longer period, it might be worth pursuing another right-handed bat on the trade market before the deadline comes and goes later this week.