Toronto Blue Jays Edwin Encarnacion hits a two run home run against the Baltimore Orioles during the second inning of their American League baseball game in Toronto, June 23, 2013.MARK BLINCH/Reuters
Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion is being scheduled for surgery to clean out suspected loose cartilage in the outside portion of his left wrist, and will not play the rest of the season.
Also, fellow all-star Brett Cecil is being shut down due to nerve irritation is his pitching elbow.
Both players were placed on the 15-day disabled list.
Encarnacion's been playing through wrist discomfort but after losing control of his bat in the ninth inning of a loss to Baltimore on Sunday, he thought, "No more."
"It's been bothering me a lot so I just want to get it done," said the first baseman. "The last couple of weeks it's been worse. Every swing I make, I've been feeling it, so I can't keep swinging like that."
Batting .272 with 36 home runs and 104 RBIs, Encarnacion leaves a pair of personal goals unaccomplished due to the surgery -- finishing the season healthy, and reaching the 40-homer mark for the second consecutive season.
The Jays medical staff apprised him that recovery will take two months, meaning he should be healthy for spring training.
Encarnacion had wrist problems in spring training, he says from a slide made during the winter.
"He's been dealing with it all year and it got to the point of the bat launch," manager John Gibbons said. "He's been able to deal with it. It comes and goes."
With Encarnacion's injury, every original starter except DH Adam Lind and catcher J.P. Arencibia has been placed on the disabled list this season: second baseman Maicer Izturis (ankle), shortstop Jose Reyes (ankle), third baseman Brett Lawrie (oblique and ankle), left fielder Melky Cabrera (knee, later found to be a benign tumor in his spine), centre fielder Colby Rasmus oblique), and right fielder Jose Bautista (upper leg bone bruise).
Cecil, used exclusively out of the bullpen for the first time, appeared in 60 games, going 5-1 with a 2.82 earned run average and striking out 70 batters in 60-2/3 innings. He dominated opponents in the first half of the season, but his ERA doubled in the second half.
"If something was wrong with the ligament, I would feel it, which I haven't," Cecil said. "Everything right now points to nerve inflammation which is good because it's not something else [more serious]. But the doctor also told me it's bad in a way, that the nerve is getting irritated, because it's getting overworked."
Following an Aug. 24 appearance in Houston, he reached down to tie his shoe and felt something strange from his shoulder to the elbow. The Jays kept him out of action for six days, and then he allowed two hits and two runs in one-third of an inning against Kansas City.
He's made three appearances since, and the elbow irritation flared up after the last one, on Sept. 12 against the Angels.