Giles remains with Blue Jays through Deadline

KANSAS CITY -- Though Ken Giles had been one of the hottest names on the trade market over the past few weeks, a recurring bout of right elbow inflammation kept the Blue Jays' closer with the team until at least the offseason.

After last appearing in a game Saturday, throwing 10 pitches in a perfect 10th inning against the Rays, the 28-year-old Giles felt that something was not right and went to Toronto’s training staff to find a solution. On Tuesday, Giles visited Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas and received a cortisone shot after his latest MRI revealed no structural damage.

“I’ve been battling a little bit,” Giles said. “It’s one of those things where I have to stay on top of it. In my previous outing, I just wasn’t comfortable and I felt like if I pushed myself any further I could do further damage, so I decided to say something and get it right. Right now, it feels great after that shot and I’m hoping it will be behind me.”

The MRI was Giles’ second this season, as he also underwent one after diving for a ball in May and landing on his elbow, but the two instances are unrelated. Meister confirmed what the Blue Jays had found, and the injection kept the hurler sidelined through the series against the Royals.

“After the last outing, he came to us and talked to us about it,” Toronto head trainer Nikki Huffman said. “We saw our docs and [thought we should] take another look at this to make sure that nothing else is going on. He’s had some good results after the first stint on the [injured list], came back and everything was good.

“But when it comes up again, you just want to make sure that you’re not missing something. So you get another set of eyes, you get another picture and you double check all the boxes and you make sure everything’s OK, and it was."

Giles is still searching for answers as to what has caused his inflammation, but Meister cleared Giles to resume throwing Thursday, which is when the right-hander's progression back to the mound is slated to begin. The Blue Jays are hesitant to place Giles on the IL again, as he could be ready to throw in a shorter period than 10 days.

“It’s been giving me a bad attitude,” he said of his elbow. “It’s just getting inflamed. I’ve got to figure out why. There’s not really a reason why it’s getting inflamed, maybe I’m getting out of whack with my mechanics and that’s what’s irritating it. Right now, I’m hitting the computers, I’m hitting the books, to try to figure out the cause and maybe try to fix that.”

Giles is under club control through 2020, so Toronto wasn’t facing a situation where it felt it had to trade him by Wednesday's Deadline. But the Blue Jays had reportedly been receiving significant interest in the righty, who is happy the Deadline is behind him.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking, honestly,” Giles said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen, especially with what I’ve been dealing with right now. It’s just one of those things where I had to be patient. Now the nerve wrack is all gone, I can just focus on getting back on that mound and enjoying playing baseball again.”

Giles went on the 10-day injured list in June with the same ailment, but he returned after the minimum stay. The six-year veteran has appeared in 35 games this year for the Blue Jays, posting a 1.54 ERA over 35 innings with 58 strikeouts and 11 walks.

“We’ll see how Kenny goes playing catch [Thursday], and then we’ll go from there,” Huffman said. “If he wants to go fairly quickly, he’s been cleared by Dr. Meister to do that. So that’s great news. That’s why we know it’s pretty mild."