Rays starter Tyler Glasnow left a live batting practice session early this afternoon after experiencing some oblique discomfort, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He’s scheduled for an MRI tomorrow morning to determine the seriousness of the issue.
Until those results come back, it’ll remain unclear whether Glasnow is now in jeopardy of missing the start of the season. The 6’8″ righty is hoping for a return to form after the bulk of the past year and a half have been wiped out by an elbow injury that necessitated Tommy John surgery. Glasnow missed the second half of 2021 and almost all of last season rehabbing from that procedure. He returned for two abbreviated starts at the tail end of the regular season and tossed five scoreless innings in his lone postseason appearance.
Before Glasnow had even gotten back on an MLB mound, the Rays made a surprising commitment to him for the 2024 campaign. He and the club agreed to a $25MM deal for that season, extending the team’s window of control by an additional season. When healthy, the hard-throwing Glasnow looks more than capable of living up to that lofty salary, but injuries have prevented him from reaching 100 innings in any of his three full seasons with the club.
Since the start of the 2019 campaign, Glasnow owns a 2.75 ERA across 212 2/3 innings. He’s struck out a massive 36% of opponents against a solid 7.8% walk rate while holding hitters to a laughable .185/.248/.329 slash line. Glasnow has only made 39 regular season appearances over that four-year stretch. That’s in part due to the truncated 2020 schedule, but he twice had extended IL stints due to forearm/elbow maladies.
If he’s ready for the start of the season, Glasnow will join Shane McClanahan as a high-powered pairing at the top of the Tampa Bay rotation. They’ll be followed by free agent signee Zach Eflin, Jeffrey Springs and Drew Rasmussen. Should Glasnow (or anyone else in the group) not be available for Opening Day, Luis Patiño, Yonny Chirinos and Josh Fleming could all battle for a rotation spot. Top prospect Taj Bradley is also on the 40-man roster and figures to make his MLB debut at some point this year. He dominated over 16 Double-A starts last season and closed out the year with a 3.66 ERA and 21.5% strikeout rate over 12 appearances for Triple-A Durham.
Tyler is truly made of glass. Guy can’t stay on the field and on average has only pitched 58 innings per season, so it’s not like he’s overused. Maybe he needs to consider a move to the bullpen. He’s just not made out to be a starter.
A bit of an overreaction, but point taken.
He’s been in the league for 7 years now and on average is pitching 58 innings per season. Starters don’t usually pitch such low number of innings unless they’re injured often. Maybe he can get back to health as a starter, but given his history and arm trouble, he might be best to transition to the pen. No way is he getting close to 150 innings per season. And they’re going to pay him $25M in 2024?
That’s the gamble small market teams have to make. People bemoan the Rays for being cheap, now you’re complaining they had a better use of that $25 million in 2024. The thing is, that $25 million wouldn’t have been used if Glasnow didn’t get it. Let’s not pretend the rays would have earmarked that payroll for others besides just pocketing it.
Bingo
You make valid points, York.
All common injuries for many pitchers. Hopefully arm problems are no longer a issue now. He needed tj and now should be good. After he heals from this he might be good to go for the majority of this season. If he gets another injury then you may be on to something.
You can’t average in entire seasons that he was injured. Doesn’t seem fair. Truth is he’s an ELITE starter when healthy and actually pitching. For the rays, they will take what they can get! Any team would.
Tyler is truly made of glass, now.
Tyler Madof Glasnow
yup, GLASSnow is back!
Death, taxes, and…
A’s best rotation in the MLB
Thanks for the laugh. Same guy who said they’d be 81-81? I wet myself over that one.
UncleDike: maybe most of us “wet” ourselves over your blatant stupid comments and takes. How about some community service (which you are likely familiar with) and take 30 days off from commenting.
This Rays pitching staff has the potential to be a Top 3 staff in MLB. Having Patino as a fill in starter is quite the luxury, not to mention Taj Bradley waiting for his chance too.
He said A’s not Rays.
but why
Patio is quite injury prone too. We will see
TB is going to regret not trading this guy.
Why? When exactly should they have traded him? Before he got hurt? No kidding! But no one would have traded for him once he got hurt. He was DOMINATE before that and considerably cheap for the performance output!
This is more or less related to this article but I have always wondered about this: is there some kind of correlation between the height of a player and the risk of injury? Or is it just purely bad luck, bad mechanics, bad body in general or lack of proper training?
Some would argue it’s a simple matter of the difference between pitching and throwing. Not saying that it applies for Glasnow but some guys love to light up the radar gun. It’s impressive until your arm blows out. Truth is, you don’t always have to bring the heat to be an effective pitcher.
“ Truth is, you don’t always have to bring the heat to be an effective pitcher.”
Just reminded me of that movie Summer Catch. Not a bad baseball movie.
Also, didn’t he suffer his first major injury after they started cracking down on the sticky substances? Perhaps that forced him to change his mechanics in a way that led to injury.
Pitching is unnatural and very stressful on the body. Some pitchers have a build that’s more susceptible to injury, some have bad mechanics and/or training, and sometimes it’s just bad luck. Basically, “some or all of the above” would be the answer to big boi’s question.
Chirinos’ job to lose
Need chirinos back in rotation he was a very reliable starter! If he is back to 100 the clear next man up
Guys with oblique injuries all over baseball. Worse for P’s obviously but Suzuki same thing for the Cubs. I bet every team has at least 1 oblique injury.
not so sure I’d like to swing a bat with an oblique injury either
I reckon oblique injury is ever so slightly preferrred to the dreaded obtuse or acute inury, which can keep a guy horizontal for months. Glasnow will take this rehab straight on, no indirect work arounds.
I hate obliques for players. Seems like a thing that never fully heals. Just wait, they will say he’s healthy and then out of nowhere he will tweak this and land on the DL.
DH him until he’s ready to throw again?
Get Taj Bradley stretched out.
Bradley is already a starting pitcher prospect. He doesn’t need to be “stretched out”.
@mp2891 all starting pitchers need to be stretched out during spring training.
Then what was the point of saying “Get Taj Bradley stretched out.”? Bradley would be getting stretched out with or without Glas’ injury.
If you’re trying to say Bradley is next man up, I agree with you that he has a good chance to be that guy. Personally, I think one of Chirinos, Patino or even Fleming is likely to get the nod because the Rays may not want to start Bradley’s clock, but I won’t be surprised if he has a good Spring and gets the nod. He’ll then be sent down when Glas returns and probably stay down long enough for the Rays to maintain the control they want.
Dude, why are you trying so hard to make me look dumb? They are currently working on getting all starting pitchers stretched out, thus why I said get Taj stretched out. It is something that applies to all starting pitchers around this time every year that you are looking forward to seeing start the year. You knew what I meant, you’re just trying too hard to be a troll.
Bradley will not be called up til June at best in order preserve an extra year of control. Chirinos is next man and pitino needs to move to bullpen after this year if he can’t regain what he once had as prospect
It would only take a delay of about two weeks to gain an extra year of control. Waiting until June would be to avoid him achieving Super Two status.
Rays don’t worry about Super 2 as much with pitchers. Both Baz and McClanny are super 2 and were under the Rays control as prospects. Glas was Super 2 but acquired that way from the Pirates.
MRI people busy with ballplayers today.
The Pirates definitely lost in the Archer trade but is looking a little less terrible each year.
Every time I come to MLBTR I wonder why so many people who aren’t fans of a team feel the need to comment on articles about a team they don’t follow. The reactions to Glasnow’s injury in this comment section are beyond ridiculous.
First, most of Glasnow’s injuries have been arm related, which he tried to treat through means other than surgery. He finally got TJS in 2021 and the Rays are optimistic that his arm injury days are behind him (as much as they ever are for a pitcher). We will see, but that is why they gave him a guaranteed $25MM in 2024. This injury is completely unrelated to his prior injuries. As a Rays fan, I am concerned for his health and availability to pitch in 2023, but I have no reason to think this injury will keep him on the shelf for more than a month into the season (worst case scenario).
Second, no team in its right mind would transition Glasnow to the Pen. Seriously guys, you obviously have no idea how good Glasnow is if you’re suggesting such stupidity.
Would you put deGrom in the Pen because he can’t stay healthy? Obviously not, Same thing applies to Glasnow.. And before someone posts that Glasnow is not deGrom, check out their results and you’ll see that Glasnow is a top 10 pitcher in the league when healthy.
Third, anyone who thinks the Rays are lucky to have Patino waiting in the wings hasn’t followed his career. He’s hanging by a thread as a starter, and is a DFA candidate at the moment. He still has an option, so I expect the Rays to do everything they can to help him realize his potential, but make no mistake, he’s just a name at this point.
Well you know, there are some of us like me who follow EVERY team, so you don’t have to be a one-team fanboy to comment about guys on your team. I play fantasy baseball and that requires knowing and following the entire player pool. So take that into consideration.
Fair enough. I hope you approach each comment section looking to learn something from the fans of the teams who post. In this case, the Rays are not going to transition Glas to the Pen, they probably have no regrets extending him through 2024, and Chirinos (not Patino) is likely the Rays’ 5th starter with Glas missing the start of the season. A good Spring by Patino, Fleming, or even Bradley could see any of them make the OD roster though.
I mean no reason to panic, oblique injuries are hard to diagnose or come back from. A simple sneeze could set a guy back. I still would have liked the Cubs to have gone through with the Bryant for Glasnow trade that both teams were kicking the tires on. This guy is a legitimate ace, health not being an issue.
That wasn’t a straight up 1 for 1 trade though. Cubs would have had to pony up a lot more than Bryant for Glasnow.
If it wasn’t 1 for 1 then I can understand why Hoyer didn’t pull the trigger on that trade.
You can’t make that statement without knowing what the Rays were asking. A straight up 1 for 1 trade would have been outright steal by the Cubs, and something the Rays would have never considered (seriously or otherwise). One full year of an Ace pitcher making $5MM (and providing QO draft pick compensation if not extended) in return for a couple months of an oft-injured bat making around $20MM (if my memory is correct). No team makes that trade. Cubs probably made the right call at the end of the day, as the prospects they received for Bryant are panning out, but acquiring Glas would have given the Cubs’ 2023 season real potential. For what it’s worth, BTV currently values Glasnow at more than twice what Canario and Killian are worth.
There is going to be natural skepticism about just “how good” he or any pitcher is who did very well when foreign substances were widely allowed to provide an edge. Hopefully he will be healthy enough to show he is an elite TOR starter that can pile up innings.
The only things he’ll be piling up are stacks of Benjamins.
I’ll make another gratuitous plug for stretching out Jason Adam here, assuming he keeps his walks down. Three plus pitches, good velo, and lots of statcast lollipops. It allows the Rays a back-up plan if Chirinos doesn’t work out (he’s a 2 pitch arm coming back from devastating injury and on innings limits), so they don’t have to rush Fleming, Patiño, and Bradley up to the majors until they’ve ironed out any wrinkles (a good idea given McClanahan ended 2022 with shoulder issues and Springs/Rasmussen are bouncing back from record inning loads, and all 3 of those names have encountered turbulence at the upper levels). Jason Adam as a reliever is somewhat expendable if the Rays can usher several of the NRIs into useful bullpen roles (like Graham Spraker, Trevor Kelley, etc). The Rays now unfortunately have a third 40 man pitcher spot to add an NRI to (after placing post-TJS RHPs Kittredge and Baz to the IL), so there’s room to add to the 40 and the Durham roster (with a reasonable expectation of promotion or trade if performing).
ROFL… Adam is arguably the Rays best shutdown reliever. They aren’t going to mess with that to see if he can increase his workload to starter levels. If the Rays feel the need to turn a reliever into a starter (and I don’t think they do), they’ll try the move with someone like Beeks who has generally pitched long relief in his career, as opposed to Adam who is a 1 inning specialist. For that to happen though, the Rays would have to suffer several other losses to the rotation. For now, they need one of Chirinos, Patino or Bradley (Fleming is a break glass in case of emergency option) to step up and pitch 3-5 games. That’s hardly the end of the world requiring them to mess with one of their best relievers.
Question – Are you really saying Glas is headed to the 60 day IL? Glas is expected to miss 6-8 weeks total, which means he’ll only miss 1-3 weeks of the season. Rays aren’t putting him on the 60 day based on what we know today.