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Inside The Blue Jays

Blue Jays' Nathan Lukes Dominating Since Returning From Month Long IL Stint

It is truly incredible how good Nathan Lukes has been since he returned from IL.
Maddy Dickens|
Apr 19, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
Apr 19, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

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Toronto Blue Jays

To say that the Toronto Blue Jays have been forced to deal with injuries this season would be quite the understatement. No piece of the roster has been spared, and some have dealt with more than one, like outfielder Nathan Lukes.

Lukes might not have started the year on the dreaded injured list, nor been forced from the game too often to begin with, but he was dealing with vertigo since spring training. Had this been a normal year, it seems likely this wouldn't have been something he would try to push through, but he did.

Then, when he was starting to get a grasp on how to deal with the inconsistent symptoms, he was sidelined with a hamstring strain, which made him miss a little over a month of action. But since he rejoined the ballclub on May 25, Lukes has been absolutely unstoppable.

*Note* These stats are compiled from his first nine games back from IL.

  • .465 Batting Average
  • .536 On-Base Percentage
  • .637 Slugging Percentage
  • 1.173 OPS
  • 15 Hits
  • 1 HR
  • 3 RBI
  • 2 Doubles
  • 2 Drawn Walks
  • 15% Strikeout Rate
  • 20 Total Bases
  • 7 Runs Scored

In a time the Jays were begging for a bat, he stepped up despite everything else he had been dealing with up to this point.

Lukes This Season

Nathan Lukes hits a baseball in a blue Blue Jays jerse
Blue Jays left fielder Nathan Lukes (38) hits a home run against the Atlanta Braves during the third inning at Truist Park. | Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

It wasn't until Mid-April that the year started to turn around for Toronto's outfielder, after he saw a vertigo specialist. Three weeks into the season, he was hitting under .100, but that has not stopped his year stats from rapidly growing to one of the best on the team.

Lukes is now hitting .329 on the year while slugging .435, somewhat hard to fathom considering he was experiencing dizzy spells for nearly half of the games that he was in. Had his lines not been derailed from the jump, he would easily be in contention for the All-Star race as ballots just opened, and he still might.

After the series against the Atlanta Braves, he extended an 11-game hitting streak, which started before he even went on IL. If he keeps going the way that he is, then he will continually be seen as the leadoff man.

This could be more than just a really good run for Lukes, but could easily lead to the best season of his career, and the Jays will need every bit of it if the organization has any hope of making a deep run when October rolls around.

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Maddy Dickens
MADDY DICKENS

Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.

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