Injured Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer gets second cortisone shot in thumb

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If at first you don’t succeed … take another shot.

That’s the approach Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer has taken with the nagging thumb injury that limited him to just eight appearances last season with Texas and to just one start so far with the Jays.

Any potential return to the roster is still a long way off, though manager John Schneider reported that the 40-year-old veteran had a second cortisone injection on Friday to help reduce the pain and inflammation to the point that he can pitch again.

“Max had another cortisone shot in a different area of his thumb,” Schneider said prior to Friday’s first of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners at the Rogers Centre. “It’s more in the knuckle joint where he was getting some irritation.”

Schneider said the hope is that Scherzer will start throwing as early as Monday when he plans to meet the team in Houston at the start of a six-game road trip.”

The lingering issue reared up for Scherzer after his third start in spring training and then again three innings into his first regular season start. He was placed on the injured list with thumb inflammation on March 30 and has yet to throw off a mound since.

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In other injury news, Daulton Varsho (shoulder) is on track for a potential end of April season debut. After taking a couple days off to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, Varsho is slated to report to Florida where he will see regular game action with the single-A Dunedin Blue Jays.

After that, the Gold Glove centre fielder will ship north to triple-A Buffalo where Schneider expects he’ll play a handful of games before being summoned back to the big leagues.

Meanwhile, John Schneider spoke of the demotion of Davis Schneider on Wednesday.

“It was going to be tough playing-time wise over the next 10 days so go down, get a little reset, get at-bats,” John Schneider said. “The at-bats were kind of sporadic here so he was on board with it.

“The last part of the message was just, ‘Dude, you’re part of this. You’ve been a big part of this for a couple of years.'”