The Toronto Blue Jays placed right fielder Jose Bautista on the 15-day disabled list Friday, less than 24 hours after he sprained his left big toe when he collided with the outfield wall.
The injury occurred Thursday night in Philadelphia when he got his foot caught in a fence latch while trying to make a catch. Bautista limped off the field with team personnel and was wearing a walking boot Friday in the Toronto clubhouse.
A preliminary exam did not show any fracture, but Bautista will undergo further tests to determine the severity of the injury.
"It's frustrating," he said. "I've put in a lot of hard work, dedication and effort into being healthy, and this sort of stuff happens. It can only happen by playing aggressively, and that's the type of player I am."
Still, he couldn't help but bemoan the circumstances of the injury.
"I could've stepped one inch shorter of the wall, one inch closer to the wall, and none of this would've happened," he said. "It's just a little bit of bad luck."
Bautista is hitting .230 with 12 home runs and an American League-best 48 walks in 65 games this season. He is in the final year of his contract.
"He's going to have to get some specialized X-rays, some stress X-rays and some things like that," Blue Jays head athletic trainer George Poulis said. "The doctors are pretty confident now there's no fracture, but once you start digging deeper and getting these specialized tests, you never know what can show up."
It's the kind of injury that doesn't go away quickly, so Toronto was left with no choice but to put Bautista on the DL.
"When you stub your toe in your living room, the pain goes away in an hour," Poulis said. "This pain is not going away. It's pretty evident that it's not going to be a two- or three-day thing."
The Blue Jays called up Darrell Ceciliani from Triple-A Buffalo. Ceciliani played briefly for the New York Mets last season before being traded for cash.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
