TORONTO — Miguel Amaya couldn’t stop smiling as he stood in front of his locker in the visitors clubhouse on Tuesday at the Rogers Centre.
Fresh off the 60-day injured list following an oblique injury that sidelined him nearly three months, Amaya was thrilled to be around his Chicago Cubs teammates.
“It feels amazing to be back,” a grinning Amaya said. “Thank God I’m healthy and now (here) to help the boys. … It was a long process, and I was just day by day listening to my body and playing some games down there (in Arizona) and getting the necessary recovery.”
Amaya returned to the lineup Wednesday for the first time since May 24, but his night abruptly ended in the eighth inning of the Cubs’ 4-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
In a gut-wrenching sequence, Amaya went down in a heap past first base after awkwardly hitting the front of the base as he beat out an infield single. Cubs trainers immediately came out of the dugout to look at his lower left leg.
A morose Cubs dugout watched as a cart arrived to shuttle Amaya off the field. The 26-year-old catcher was in tears. Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. patted Amaya on the shoulder before the cart pulled away.
Amaya suffered a sprained left ankle and will be headed back to the IL, manager Craig Counsell said after the game. X-rays were negative.
Amaya hit his head on the ground on the fall and was asked precautionary questions per protocol on the field by Cubs trainers. He didn’t immediately show concussion symptoms and will be reevaluated on Thursday morning.
“You’re hoping kind of it was just a collision or a scare, and that it just kind of scared him, but it was pretty clear after 20 seconds that he either sprained it or worse,” Counsell said. “You knew something was pretty seriously wrong pretty quickly.
“It’s bad luck, unfortunately, and we’re going to miss him.”
Reese McGuire entered as the pinch runner for Amaya, eventually scoring on Seiya Suzuki’s RBI single to give the Cubs a three-run lead. The Cubs opted to carry three catchers on the big-league roster when Amaya came off the injured list on Tuesday to preserve their depth, as McGuire is out of minor-league options and playing well.
Matt Shaw was on second base and immediately took off for third when Amaya hit a soft grounder to Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette. Shaw couldn’t tell from his vantage point what happened, but could tell it was serious based on Amaya’s reaction.
“He’s busting his ass to try to beat out a ground ball,” Shaw said. “It was really hard. We’ve seen everything he’s done to get back here to the year he’s had up to the point where he hurt his oblique.
“He’s an unbelievable guy, someone we love having here, and he’s a huge part of this team. So to see him go down, get carted off like that, was really hard. We feel for him a lot, and we’re thinking of him and we’re praying for him.”
Originally Published: August 13, 2025 at 8:17 PM CDT