Steven Wilson‘s ongoing back problems will prevent the right-hander from being part of the Rays’ Opening Day roster, manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). According to the Rays’ official injury update page, Wilson received an injection in his back, and it will be at least another week before he takes the mound.
While there isn’t yet any indication that the injury is overly serious, Wilson has yet to pitch during Spring Training, so he’ll need to make up for lost time in rehab work once he has recovered. An absence of longer than the 15-day minimum on the injured list certainly seems possible, though obviously such timeline projections won’t be known until later in March.
This isn’t the first time Wilson has dealt with a bad back, as a pair of back strains cost him close to two and a half months of the 2024 season when Wilson was pitching with the White Sox. The second of those back strains wound up prematurely ending Wilson’s season in mid-August, though it could be that he was shut down in part because there was no reason to hurry back for the end of Chicago’s record 121-loss season.
It’s a tough start to Wilson’s Rays tenure, as Tampa Bay just acquired the reliever as part of a four-player trade with the White Sox in November. Wilson has generally posted solid results over his four MLB seasons (apart from a 5.71 ERA over 34 2/3 innings during his injury-riddled 2024 campaign), including a 3.42 ERA over 55 1/3 innings out of the Sox bullpen last year. The sweeper is Wilson’s plus pitch and he induces a lot of soft contact, even though both his walk and strikeout rates were below average last season.
Hopefully he gets better. Doesn’t miss too much time.
How does this affect the Porcupine Tree tour? 🙂
Clearly, he’ll be in absentia. 😜
Rays should trade Caminero to Detroit. The Tigers have the young players at the positions they need and some are blocked in Detroit or change of scenery candidates. Some combo of Keith, Clark, Briceno, Anderson, Liranzo, Lee, Jung, Peck…. Lots to choose from. The right combo let’s them reset vs rebuild. Harris gets his big bat and Miggy legacy trade. No one is untouchable!
Yeah the Tigers could put together a great offer for Caminero. According to Fangraphs Tigers top prospect list from yesterday, the first SP prospect comes in at #19.
Can’t recall seeing such a lopsided system before.
blogs.fangraphs.com/detroit-tigers-top-47-prospect…
Regardless I’d imagine we’re atleast 2 years away from the Rays considering dealing Caminero.
A lot of the pitchers the Tigers drafted the last couple years have graduated (Melton, Jobe) or been injured and it has delayed development. On a positive note a lot of the recent draftees were high schoolers so still lots of time. Hamm and Sears are the only two who seem close to MLB. Their system flip flopped from being pitcher heavy to hitter heavy in a fairly short period.
The Rays are open to trade pretty much everyone on their roster except for Caminero. I wouldn’t trust the Rays to get a good return even on Caminero. The last two seasons they keep getting back piles of low minors prospects or former top prospects that they hope will regain their former hype.
Back injuries suck, especially for ballplayers.
Why does the headline make me think of Guitarzan?
I thought he was competitive with the Chisox last year, he was part of the Dylan Cease trade.
He must of had some disagreement with management,he was sent to triple a for a while, he probably wanted a change of scenery.Maybe he will find success at the domed trop field