According to MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson, Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson is set to meet with Dr. Keith Meister this Thursday after elbow issues pushed him to the sidelines this past weekend. It was expected that Swanson would likely start the season on the IL.

While the appointment and opinion of Dr. Meister will provide some clarity on the right-hander and his elbow, the unfortunate side is that meeting with Dr. Meister usually means the injury is more serious. Multiple Jays prospects met with the Texas-based doctor last year and each required surgery after to repair their UCL while Jordan Romano avoided Tommy John surgery but still missed a good portion of the season.

For Swanson, it has been an up and down couple of seasons for the veteran hurler.

The North Dakota product had a late start to the 2024 spring after his son was involved in an accident and forearm inflammation kept him on the IL to start the year. Swanson then got off to a rough start once healthy, allowing 14 earned runs through 17 outings with a 7.34 FIP and just ten strikeouts, with opponents authoring a 1.025 OPS and a .319 BABIP.

Swanson would be sent down to the minor leagues at the end of May to get away from the spotlight and returned in mid-July, where he put up better numbers. Down the stretch, the reliever authored a 2.81 ERA through 28 outings where he struck out 27 batters compared to just eight earned runs. His FIP still sat a bit high (5.39) due to the eight home runs and 10 walks but overall, it was a solid turnaround for the Blue Jays reliever.

With the 31-year-old potentially sidelined for the year, the Jays will have to look internally to find a replacement in Tommy Nance, Josh Walker, Zach Pop, Nick Robertson, and Dillon Tate, who was just signed to a Major League deal.