Sadly: Newly acquired pitcher will be featured, As an important hander is ruled out due to injury…….

Ryan Burr, a recently acquired pitcher, will play in Friday’s series opener against the Pirates.

Alek Manoah, a right-hander, was placed on the 15-day injured list by the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday because of a sprained right elbow.

He felt soreness in his throwing arm and was taken out of the game in the second inning of Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Moving to the IL becomes effective on Thursday.

Due to discomfort in his right shoulder, Manoah missed the opening five weeks of the season despite having a 1-2 record and a 3.70 earned-run average over five outings.

Additionally on Friday, the Philadelphia Phillies traded right-hander Ryan Burr to the Blue Jays in exchange for cash, and Joel Kuhnel was designated for assignment.

Burr has been elevated to the major league roster and is expected to play in Friday night’s game against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates. Burr was 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA in 15 triple-A appearances this season.

READ MORE:

Alek Manoah goes down, revealing a deadly hole in the Blue Jays’ strategy.

With Manoah sidelined for an extended period of time due to a sprained elbow ligament, John Schneider and the Jays will now look to… who?

With so little depth in their starting rotation, the Blue Jays have been playing with fire for well over a year, and it looks like they could soon be set ablaze.

Due to Alek Manoah’s injury to his right elbow, they are vulnerable.

The 26-year-old pitcher will see Dr. Keith Meister in person early next week following an MRI on Thursday. Manoah’s ulnar collateral ligament is currently sprained, according to the diagnosis. He would probably miss six to eight weeks before a rehab assignment if surgery is not necessary. That would mean he couldn’t play until after the trade deadline of July 30.

Before Friday night’s game at Rogers Centre against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Manoah was placed on the 15-day disabled list. “When you look at other cases around the league, he’s going to miss some time,” Jays manager John Schneider said of Manoah. “I’m not sure exactly how long, but meeting with a reputable doctor in person will hopefully throw some more light on that.”

A long loss for a starting pitcher would typically result in a circumstance where the next man up steps in. Every season is replete with tales of lesser players attempting to fill the vacuum left by a departing star. After all, one man’s departure is another man’s opportunity.

The Jays, at least in the conventional sense, don’t have any backup starters, so that’s not the situation. Schneider will have to make do with band-aid fixes because there isn’t a pitcher in the entire team who can step in full-time.

To replace Manoah, right-hander Bowden Francis is the front-runner. The third-year pitcher has not pitched in the major leagues since suffering a forearm injury on April 24. However, he has already returned to his teammates in Toronto after making four rehab appearances in the minor leagues. He’s prepared.

Although that is helpful, Francis, 28, is not a starter. Earlier in the season, he worked as one, but the endeavor didn’t work out. Given that Francis is thought to perform better in shorter stints, it was decided that he would only be used in long relief after giving up 12 runs in two appearances.

The only thing that has changed is that the club was obliged to act after Francis and Manoah sustained injuries. Francis is probably going to be limited to four innings or less, so the Jays will need to find another pitcher to relieve him.

Yariel Rodríguez, who has been recovering from an injury like Francis, may eventually be included in that duo. Although Rodríguez only lasted four innings in each of his four starts for the Jays earlier this year, he still collapsed after two weeks.

Trevor Richards is the third choice. This season, the versatile reliever has pitched up to 3 1/3 innings in a game, but never more than 38 pitches.

On a day when Manoah would have pitched, the three of them combined could help the Jays get through nine innings, but that wouldn’t leave Schneider with much leeway for the remainder of the pen. The Jays won’t be able to survive the next two to three months with this plan, even though it might work for a while.

They won’t, at least not frequently, go in the direction of skipping Manoah’s turn totally on off-days. They tried it last year in addition to using Richards as a spot starter, and although it was effective for about a month, the season-long toll it took on a seasoned staff was apparent.

Schneider added, “It’s tough; we did that last year.” Ricky Tiedemann, a prized pitching prospect, hasn’t been available since April 26 due to a similar elbow issue. Maintaining as much availability as possible is your goal. We’re just concentrating on the upcoming turn through at this time, then moving on.