Blue Jays Welcome $76 Million NFL Star To Clubhouse After Cody Ponce Injury

The Toronto Blue Jays have emerged as a World Series frontrunner after a deep playoff run last year and they aren’t afraid to lean into high-priced talent.

After locking up franchise slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with a $500 million extension last year, then adding Dylan Cease with a franchise-record seven-year, $210 million free agent contract, the Blue Jays carry a top-five payroll in Major League Baseball.

The team also handed out a significant sum for starter Cody Ponce, who earned a three-year, $30 million contract to join the team. And that contract became a bigger gamble when Ponce exited his first start with the team following a knee injury in the third inning on Monday.

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Shortly after that game, he was diagnosed with an ACL sprain and it’s unclear if he’ll return this season. But along with the addition of Ponce came another high-priced star athlete who will be even more important in the wake of the injury.

“Cody Ponce’s brother-in-law, George Kittle, is here with him again (on Tuesday). There’s a ‘Kittle’ locker in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse,” MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson reported. “Ponce has spoken about how Kittle has influenced him to find the joy in his game again. A good resource and support for Ponce to have through this.”

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Kittle, who plays tight end for the San Francisco 49ers, is a seven time Pro Bowler who signed a four-year, $76 million contract last year. Ponce is married to his older sister and he credited Kittle with helping to reinvigorate his passion for baseball and drive his return to the majors with the Blue Jays after a stint playing professionally in Asia for several years.

“I saw the way he was playing the game of football and was not in awe, but (more) in this view of, wow, you can play such an angry game and be having fun at the same time,” Ponce said of Kittle, according to the Associated Press. “But yet still have this type of tenacity, this type of drive, this type of competitiveness, and be doing it all at the same time.”

Given that Kittle helped inspire Ponce’s comeback to the majors, the team is likely hoping that welcoming him into the clubhouse with his own locker can bring a similar impact to its other players. Following Ponce’s injury in his first start for the team, it seems he will need his brother-in-law’s tenacity more than ever.