Jays to activate Lawrie, send Santos to DL

Third baseman Brett Lawrie will come off the disabled list Tuesday just as reliever Sergio Santos is headed there with a lower right triceps strain, as the Toronto Blue Jays got mixed news on the injury front Monday night.

Manager John Gibbons said after a 4-3 win over the Chicago White Sox that Lawrie will likely be at third base and Jose Bautista in right field, presuming his back is fine, for the second game of the series.

Lawrie played second base for the second straight rehab game at single-A Dunedin, going 1-for-3 with a triple before being pinch-hit for in the ninth inning of a 3-1 win at Tampa.

While that’s a good thing for a team missing the Canadian’s glove and bat, Santos’ trip to the DL made sure to keep the injury ledger from swinging too far into positive territory.

The right-hander is expecting to go for another MRI to check his lower triceps, as the pain he experienced in the same area during spring training has returned and is lingering.

“It hit a point where I felt I wouldn’t be doing the team any service or helping them out if I wasn’t coming in and pitching effectively,” said Santos. “So I’d rather nip it in the bud now and that’s what I think their thinking is as well, get back and hopefully it’s only two or three weeks and then I can be back.”

Santos threw two-thirds of an inning Saturday in Kansas City, a day after throwing an inning Friday. He was unavailable during the previous series in Detroit due to the issue and the Blue Jays are hoping some rest will resolve the matter.

“It’s kind of nagging him on and off, and we figured you know what, we can’t have it where he pitches one day and then you’ve got to watch him a couple of days, simply because we’re doing that with (Casey) Janssen, we’re keeping an eye on (Darren) Oliver down there,” said Gibbons. “You can’t have too many guys you’re doing that with. This way it hopefully gets rid of it, the next couple of weeks it’s fine.”

Esmil Rogers and Aaron Loup recorded five outs in the seventh and eighth innings to bridge the gap to Janssen on Monday. The Blue Jays purchased the contract of Ramon Ortiz earlier in the day.

“It’s frustrating, just from missing a lot of last year and working so hard to get back, being ready for opening day and then having something else go wrong,” said Santos. “It’s just another bump in the road and I’m confident I’ll get healthy from this and hopefully help this team.”