TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are losing one of their most reliable relievers but are inching toward the return of one of their biggest off-season acquisitions.

Reliever Yimi Garcia will miss the rest of the Blue Jays’ season to clean up the scar tissue around his elbow on his right arm but veteran slugger Anthony Santander started taking batting practice with the team on Friday for the first time in months.

“It sucks. Sucks for him, sucks for us, but it just kind of got to that point,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider of Garcia’s season-ending surgery. “He’ll be ready for spring training, which is good.

“So we’ll see how the recovery goes, but hopefully it’s as normal as an off-season as he can have. But the plan is to be ready for spring.”

Garcia (1-2) has a 3.86 earned-run av

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