Jays leaving Rolen, Ryan behind

One day, two blows.

First off, Scott Rolen. After mangling his finger while fielding a groundball on Sunday, Rolen had surgery today. A screw was inserted in the messy pulp that is the tip of his right middle finger. The screw will remain in place for 14 days, before a second surgery is done to remove it.

“Basically, it’s (pain) tolerance from there … It’s definitely two weeks. We’ll see from there,” GM J.P. Ricciardi said. “It’s the individual, his pain tolerance. I’ve got to believe Scotty’s going to be a hard guy to hold down.”

But something tells the non-medically trained pessimist inside me that it's going to be a good deal longer than two weeks. A month? Six weeks? That's a long time for Marcu Scutaro to try and hold down this offence.

Also, B.J. Ryan has been officially removed from the casting list in the bullpen. We all knew this was coming. Ryan threw a bullpen today, but it's notable that trainer George Poulis seemed to be watching every bit as carefully as pitching coach Brad Arsnberg.

"Best case scenario - middle of April," is how Ricciardi put it. Again, that sounds like the beginning of May. And John Gibbons said that Ryan won't join the team until he can pitch every other day. So whatever happens, Jeremy Accardo will be splitting time with Ryan at some point.

Both men will go on some as-yet-undetermined variation of the disabled list. Ricciardi's still working it out.

Cathal Kelly