{"id":706912,"date":"2026-05-23T21:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/706912\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T21:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T21:12:27","slug":"blue-jays-hopeful-addison-barger-will-start-baseball-activities-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/706912\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Hopeful Addison Barger Will Start Baseball Activities This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> have kept themselves afloat in the American League East, sitting at 24-27 through 51 games of the season. The team has suffered from many injuries this season, limiting their ability to compete against division rivals like the New York Yankees<\/a> and Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Due to injuries, the team’s offense has struggled to maintain a potent lineup, ranking 22nd in the league in home runs (45) and 27th in slugging percentage (.369) and OPS (.675). A reason for these numbers has been in part due to the loss of one of the team\u2019s best power hitters in Addison Barger<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old had a strong 2025 season with Toronto, hitting .243 with 21 home runs, 74 RBI over 135 games. His potency showed in the postseason, where he held a .367 batting average, a .441 on-base percentage, a .583 slugging percentage with three home runs and nine RBI for a 1.025 OPS in 17 games in October.<\/p>\n

\"Toronto<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Addison Barger (47)\u00a9 Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

This season, Barger’s year started off slowly, with just one hit in his first eight games before he exited an April 5 game against the Chicago White Sox<\/a> with bilateral ankle sprains that kept him out of action for over a month.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

After recovering from the injuries, Barger returned to the lineup on May 9, and then suffered another injury, this time being right elbow inflammation, that put him on the injured list once again.<\/p>\n

Prior to Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates<\/a>, the team shared an update oon Barger\u2019s status, stating that the team is hopeful that he will begin baseball activities on Sunday. (h\/t Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet)<\/p>\n

It’s a huge step for the Blue Jays, who are in desperate need of a power bat to help their lineup compete for a playoff spot. Toronto finds itself 11 games back of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and any positive injury update is a welcome one.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Related: Dodgers Facing Emmet Sheehan Decision After Tarik Skubal Trade Report<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the MLB<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays have kept themselves afloat in the American League East, sitting at 24-27 through 51…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[6081,1820,8677,5,377,2554,49,4619,4,62,64,1750,68,31700,282,70,2553],"class_list":["post-706912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-blue-jays","tag-addison-barger","tag-american-league-east","tag-barger","tag-baseball","tag-blue-jays","tag-bluejays","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-joe-mantiply","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-slugging-percentage","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tommy-nance","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-torontobluejays"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116625955034004403","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}