Jose Bautista put on disabled list by Blue Jays

Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday following a freakish injury that he attributed in part to bad luck.

Bautista sprained his big left toe Thursday night in Philadelphia when he got his foot caught in a fence latch while trying to make a catch.

He was wearing a walking boot Friday in the Toronto clubhouse.

"It's frustrating," he said. "I've put in a lot of hard work, dedication and effort into being healthy, and this sort of stuff happens. It can only happen by playing aggressively, and that's the type of player I am."

Still, he couldn't help but bemoan the circumstances of the injury.

"I could've stepped one inch shorter of the wall, one inch closer to the wall, and none of this would've happened," he said. "It's just a little bit of bad luck."

Bautista is batting .230 with 12 homers and 41 RBIs for the defending AL East champions. He also has a team-high 48 walks.

A preliminary exam did not reveal any broken bones, but Bautista will undergo further tests to determine the severity of the injury.

"He's going to have to get some specialized X-rays, some stress X-rays and some things like that," Blue Jays head athletic trainer George Poulis said. "The doctors are pretty confident now there's no fracture, but once you start digging deeper and getting these specialized tests you never know what can show up."

It's the kind of injury that doesn't go away quickly, so Toronto was left with no choice but to put Bautista on the DL.

"When you stub your toe in your living room, the pain goes away in an hour," Poulis said. "This pain is not going away. It's pretty evident that it's not going to be a two- or three-day thing."

Ezequiel Carrera will replace Bautista in right field and bat leadoff when the Jays face the Baltimore Orioles Friday.

Outfielder Darrell Ceciliani has been called up from Triple-A Buffalo. Ceciliani, 25, has appeared in 33 games this season with Bisons, batting .217 with no home runs and nine RBI in 120 at-bats.​

Also Friday, Toronto signed first-round pick T.J. Zeuch. He was selected with the 21st overall pick in last week's draft.

The Blue Jays have signed 24 of their 41 selections from the draft, including nine of 11 players from the first 10 rounds.