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Brendan McKay Suffers UCL Injury

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Rays left-hander Brendan McKay suffered an injury to the UCL in his throwing elbow, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). McKay, who suffered the injury on the first pitch of yesterday’s appearance with Triple-A Durham, will go for a second opinion. Topkin notes that the team isn’t yet sure whether he’ll require surgery.

Whether or not McKay goes under the knife, one has to feel awful for the 26-year-old. A former #4 overall pick and top prospect, McKay progressed up the minor league ladder rather quickly and reached the majors in 2019. He tossed 49 innings over 13 appearances (including 11 starts), only managing a 5.14 ERA but posting an above-average 25.9% strikeout rate. In spite of some home run troubles, the former Louisville two-way star looked like a potential rotation building block for Tampa Bay.

In the three years since then, McKay hasn’t thrown a single major league pitch. That’s on account of an almost unfathomable stretch of poor injury luck. He missed the shortened 2020 season on account of a shoulder problem that eventually required surgery. The rehab from that procedure kept him out of action until late June 2021. Just a few outings into a minor league rehab stint, McKay suffered a flexor strain in his forearm that again proved to be season-ending. He was then diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome and underwent surgery to correct that issue last November.

McKay had been on the injured list for all of 2022 as he recovered from the TOS procedure. He set out on a rehab assignment in mid-July and spent his allotted 30-day window pitching back to Triple-A. The Rays just formally reinstated McKay from the IL on Tuesday but kept him in Durham on an optional assignment. How the club proceeds from here will be determined by the results of the upcoming evaluation, but the revelation of ligament damage certainly means another trip to the IL and would appear likely to end his 2022 season.

Rays Extend Tyler Glasnow Through 2024

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The Rays announced agreement Friday on a contract extension with Tyler Glasnow that will run through the 2024 season. The deal reportedly pays the Wasserman client $5.35MM in 2023, his final season of arbitration-eligibility, and jumps to a hefty $25MM in 2024. It also contains potential bonuses dependent upon Glasnow’s finishes in Cy Young balloting over the next two seasons.

Last year, the now-29-year-old Glasnow looked well on his way to establishing himself as one of the sport’s most dominant arms. Long a top prospect in the Pirates organization, Glasnow was infamously traded to the Rays, alongside Austin Meadows and Shane Baz, in exchange for Chris Archer — one of the most lopsided deals in recent memory.

He’s spent parts of four seasons with Tampa Bay — 2018-21 — and posted a combined 3.10 ERA and 3.19 FIP with 34.3% strikeout rate against a 7.9% walk rate. That includes a relatively slow start, as the big righty managed a 4.20 ERA through 11 appearances down the stretch after the 2018 deadline deal. Since the calendar flipped to 2019, Glasnow has been an excellent performer. He posted a microscopic 1.78 ERA across 60 2/3 innings in 2019, striking out a third of opponents while inducing grounders on over half the batted balls against him. While his ERA jumped to 4.08 during the shortened 2020 campaign, Glasnow punched out an even more impressive 38.2% of batters faced that season.

Everything seemed to be coming together last year, Glasnow’s age-27 campaign. He’d been on a potential Cy Young trajectory, starting 14 games and working to a 2.66 ERA over 88 frames through mid-June. He paired that with an elite 36.2% strikeout rate while generating swinging strikes on more than 17% of his offerings, but he blew out his elbow and was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery. That procedure ended his season and led to some speculation the payroll-conscious Rays could consider trading him last offseason, but there’s no indication they ever came close to doing so.

Glasnow maintained over the winter that he hoped to stick with Tampa Bay. He reiterated that sentiment when chatting with Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times this afternoon, saying he’d much preferred to stay in the organization. The Rays held onto him throughout his rehab process, and the former fifth-rounder could make his return to the mound later this season. Glasnow told Topkin he’s headed to Triple-A Durham to throw some live batting practice sessions and could soon embark on a minor league rehab assignment.

It’s a bold move for the Rays, whom Topkin notes have never previously paid a player a $25MM annual salary (although franchise shortstop Wander Franco will reach that mark in 2028 under the terms of the 11-year extension he signed last November). Next year’s $5.35MM figure represents only a marginal bump over this year’s $5.1MM mark, reflecting the fact that he hasn’t pitched all season and wouldn’t have been in line for a notable arbitration raise. It’s the 2024 commitment to buy out Glasnow’s first free agent year that comes as a surprise.

It’s easy to see both the high risk and reward of the move from Tampa Bay’s perspective. If Glasnow picks up right where he’d left off pre-surgery, he’ll immediately form a fearsome pairing with AL All-Star starter Shane McClanahan at the top of the rotation. It’s not uncommon for ace-caliber hurlers to surpass $30MM annually over a multi-year free agent investment, one the Rays seem unlikely to make. Even factoring in the potential bonuses, a $25MM base salary in 2024 would be more than reasonable if Glasnow pitches as he did in 2019-21, and the team isn’t on the hook for any longer-term commitment. It’s a match for the guarantee the Astros gave Justin Verlander last winter coming off two seasons largely lost to a Tommy John surgery of his own. Verlander has returned to the top of the rotation and pitched exceptionally, and the Astros have been handsomely rewarded for their investment.

At the same time, there’s no sugarcoating the downside for Tampa Bay if Glasnow suffers an injury setback or performance regression. The Rays have never opened a season with a player payroll higher than this year’s estimated $83.9MM tab, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Presumably, owner Stuart Sternberg is willing to push that number upwards over the coming two seasons, but it remains to be seen whether they’ll eclipse nine figures by that point. Glasnow’s deal could wind up counting for around one-quarter of the team’s player expenditures, and the club also has fairly notable salaries for Manuel Margot ($10MM) and Brandon Lowe ($8.75MM) for that season. Players like McClanahan, Randy Arozarena and Drew Rasmussen will have reached arbitration-eligibility by then as well.

It’s a bold strike from an organization that doesn’t customarily make this kind of financial investment. If all goes well, the Rays will get an extra season of ace-level performance for a price below the free agent market value. Glasnow, meanwhile, locks in a fair amount of financial security as he wraps up his Tommy John rehab. He tacks on another year with a club for which he’s clearly comfortable playing, and he could still land a multi-year deal once he hits the open market in advance of his age-31 season. There’s risk for the Rays in committing a sizable portion of their expected 2024 payroll to a player who hasn’t thrown an MLB pitch in 14 months, but they’re clearly confident Glasnow will be no worse for wear than he was before he went under the knife.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the Rays and Glasnow were in agreement on an extension that ran through 2024. Jeff Passan of ESPN was first to report the salary terms. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic noted the presence of “significant” bonuses based on Cy Young finishes.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Rays Notes: Franco, Fleming, Wisler, Feyereisen, Baz

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Some rumblings from the Marlins and Rays, as we check in on both Sunshine State teams…

  • After some fielding drills and batting practice on Wednesday, Wander Franco told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that “I feel super good right now and [am] getting better,” in regards to his injured right hand.  Soreness in that hand led Franco to be taken off his rehab assignment earlier this week, and the Rays will continue to monitor Franco’s injury before deciding when to restart his minor league work.  Speaking with Topkin and company today, Rays manager Kevin Cash said Saturday would be the earliest date for Franco to resume his rehab assignment.  Franco has played in only 58 games this season due to a quad strain and then hamate-bone surgery, and his return would be a big boost to a Rays club that is trying to secure a wild card berth.
  • In other Rays injury updates from Topkin, Josh Fleming and Matt Wisler each started minor league rehab assignments within the last two days, while J.P. Feyereisen will throw a live batting practice session before the team decides on his rehab assignment.  This is a good development for Feyereisen, who had a brief setback due to shoulder soreness earlier this month.  Shane Baz also told Topkin and other reporters that he’ll start a throwing program on Monday, but it remains to be seen if Baz can get fully ramped up in time to return to big league game action before the season is over.  An elbow sprain sent Baz to the 15-day IL and then the 60-day IL retroactive to July 14, so it will still be a few weeks before he is even eligible to be activated.

Nationals Claim Tommy Romero From Rays

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The Nationals have claimed right-hander Tommy Romero off waivers from the Rays, and assigned Romero to Triple-A.  Both Romero and Kevin Herget were designated for assignment by Tampa Bay on Tuesday, and the Rays announced that Herget been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers.

Romero has a 7.71 ERA over three appearances and 4 2/3 innings for the Rays this season, marking the 24-year-old’s first bit of Major League experience.  A 15th-round pick for the Mariners in the 2017 draft, Romero has been in the Rays organization since 2018, and posted some quality numbers down on the farm.  He has a 2.66 ERA and 25.91% strikeout rate over 473 2/3 career innings in the minor leagues, with some variance both well above and well below that K%.

Romero has started 80 of his 108 games in the minors, though some of those were rather abbreviated outings, as the Rays experimented with some opener/piggyback starter scenarios.  Most recently, Romero has been working only as a reliever, with Tampa eyeing him as bullpen depth rather than rotation help if he got another call later in the season.

The waiver claim now makes that a moot point, and it seems likely the Nationals will stretch Romero out again as a starting pitcher.  The Nats have been aggressive on the waiver wire (as noted by the Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty) in recent months, as the team has used the high waiver priority afforded to Washington’s low position in the standings to audition and check out several players.  There isn’t much risk for the rebuilding Nats in seeing if they can find a hidden gem amongst these waiver claims, and in Romero’s case, his age (25), solid minor league track record and his full set of minor league options make him an interesting candidate.

Chase Anderson To Opt Out Of Rays Contract

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Right-hander Chase Anderson signed a minor league deal with the Rays a month ago, and is now going to exercise an opt-out clause in that contract, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (Twitter link).  Anderson came to Tampa Bay after opting out of another minors pact with the Tigers.

A veteran of the last eight MLB seasons, Anderson has yet to see any big league time in 2022, instead tossing a combined 80 innings at Triple-A.  His work with the Rays’ affiliate in Durham (3.60 ERA in 10 innings) has been better than his 70 frames (4.63 ERA) with the Tigers’ top affiliate in Toledo, with Anderson delivering improved strikeout and walk rates over his short time in the Rays organization.

However, it would seem as if this performance didn’t put Anderson on Tampa Bay’s radar for a call-up to the majors, and so Anderson will hit the open market again in search of another opportunity.  Anderson’s track record as a starting pitcher would theoretically provide some use to a team in need of rotation depth.  In hindsight, it’s a little surprising that Detroit (crushed by pitching injuries all season long) didn’t call Anderson up to fill any of its many rotation vacancies.

Of course, recent results haven’t favored the 34-year-old, who posted a 6.94 ERA over 81 2/3 innings in the majors with the Blue Jays and Phillies in 2020-21.  Hitters mashed 21 homers off Anderson in those 81 2/3 frames, and he has continued to have trouble with the long ball at the Triple-A level this year.  Anderson has surrendered 16 homers in his 80 innings with Durham and Toledo.

Orioles Claim Phoenix Sanders

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The Orioles announced Wednesday that they’ve claimed righty Phoenix Sanders off waivers from the Rays. Tampa Bay designated Sanders for assignment over the weekend.

Sanders, 27, made his big league debut with Tampa Bay this season, tossing 14 2/3 innings with five runs allowed on a dozen hits and three walks. The former 10th-round pick fanned 21.1% of his opponents, walked 5.3% of them and kept 41.5% of batted balls against him on the ground.

Solid as those numbers are, Sanders hasn’t exactly shined with Triple-A Durham this year. While he’s posted an eye-popping 36-to-2 K/BB ratio there, Sanders and his 89.8 mph average fastball velocity have also been tagged for 39 hits — six of which cleared the fence for home runs (1.8 HR/9) — en route to a 5.40 ERA in 30 innings. He yielded plenty of hard contact in his limited big league time as well, evidenced by a sky-high 92.9 mph average exit velocity and a 45.2% hard-hit rate from his opponents.

The 2022 season may be a mixed bag of results in some regards, but looking more broadly, Sanders has a solid overall track record in the upper minors and has a full slate of minor league options remaining, as this year marked the first occasion on which his contract has been selected to the 40-man roster. He’ll give the O’s a somewhat intriguing, league-minimum arm who can be optioned freely and provide depth in the ’pen moving forward.

Rays Outright Ralph Garza

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  • Right-hander Ralph Garza Jr. went unclaimed on outright waivers and has been assigned to Triple-A Durham by the Rays, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The 28-year-old Garza appeared in 19 games with Tampa Bay this season and pitched 35 innings of 3.34 ERA ball, albeit with a dismal 17-to-16 K/BB ratio (11.1% strikeout rate, 10.5% walk rate). He’s posted better strikeout and walk numbers down in Durham, where he carries a 2.84 ERA with a 19.4% strikeout rate against a tiny 3.2% walk rate in 25 1/3 frames. Garza has big league experience with the Astros, Twins and Rays, and he’s generally turned in solid results in the upper minors and in the Majors. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him get another look in the big leagues before too long.

Rays Designate Tommy Romero, Kevin Herget For Assignment

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The Rays announced Tuesday that right-handers Tommy Romero and Kevin Herget have been designated for assignment, thus clearing space on the 40-man roster for right-hander JT Chargois and lefty Brendan McKay to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list. McKay has been optioned to Triple-A Durham, while Chargois will step directly into the big league bullpen. Both Romero and Herget will be placed on waivers within the week, as neither can be traded now that the Aug. 2 deadline has passed.

Romero, 25, figures to be more appealing to other organizations than your typical DFA, given his relative youth, full slate of remaining minor league options and strong performance in Triple-A to this point in the season. Through 66 2/3 innings in Durham thus far, he’s pitched to a 3.51 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 37.7% ground-ball rate. That walk rate is a bit of an abnormality, as Romero turned in lower walk rates in recent years and was credited with plus-plus command in Baseball America’s most recent scouting report, wherein they pointed out that Romero posted one of the highest strike rates in the minors last year (68.8%).

Earlier in the season, Romero was working out of the rotation in Durham, and he got the ball to “start” one game with the big league club as well (albeit as an opener). More recently, the Rays have been deploying Romero in short-relief stints down in Triple-A, perhaps taking a look at him in that role for a late-season add to the bullpen. The progression of other arms on the injured list, however, has squeezed him out of the mix for the time being, even in spite of excellent numbers since sliding to the bullpen (0.59 ERA, 18-to-3 K/BB ratio in 15 1/3 innings).

A former 15th-round pick of the Mariners (2017), Romero landed in the Rays organization by way of the 2018 Denard Span/Alex Colome trade between Tampa Bay and Seattle. He’s never ranked among the Rays’ very top tier of prospects, but Baseball America tabbed him 22nd among Tampa farmhands just a few weeks ago when updating their ranking of the Rays’ system. Every team is going to have its own evaluation of Romero, of course, but it’d be somewhat of a surprise if another team didn’t claim him — particularly with so many non-contenders in need of cost-controlled arms.

It’s unfortunate, to say the least, that Herget didn’t get into a game during his brief time with the big league squad. Selected to the roster on Aug. 19, the 31-year-old, former 39th-round pick’s ascent to the Majors after a nine-year minor league grind was a feel-good story for any baseball fan, regardless of where one’s allegiance may lie. Herget surely relishes the mere call to the big leagues, the few days of service time and the few days of Major League pay he’ll receive, but it’d have been a thrill for both him and for fans to see him get at least an inning in the show.

It’s possible, of course, that he may yet receive that opportunity. Herget’s promotion to the Majors was well earned based on his Triple-A performance this season. In 80 1/3 innings, he’d logged a 2.45 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate, a minuscule 3.4% walk rate and a 34.4% ground-ball rate. A 31-year-old journeyman of this nature isn’t typically claimed off waivers, but perhaps a team in need of some immediate rotation depth will be heartened by those gaudy results in Durham and speculate on a more-or-less free look. Failing that, he’ll head back to Durham and continue the grind, hoping for another shot at the Majors that includes an actual appearance on the bump.

Rays Reinstate, Option Nick Anderson; Designate Phoenix Sanders

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The Rays have reinstated right-hander Nick Anderson from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Durham, per broadcaster Neil Solondz. To create space on the active roster, fellow righty Phoenix Sanders was designated for assignment.

Anderson, 32, underwent elbow surgery in October 2021, a UCL brace procedure that was expected to keep him out of action until at least the middle of this year. As such, he’s been on the 60-day injured list since Spring Training.

The fact that he’s been optioned to the minors is somewhat surprising, given how excellent he was pitching before the injuries slowed him down. After being acquired from the Marlins in 2019, Anderson threw 21 1/3 innings for Tampa that year with a 2.11 ERA, striking out an incredible 52.6% of batters faced in that time while walking just 2.6%. He added another 5 2/3 innings in the postseason with a 1.59 ERA and  38.1% strikeout rate without issuing a single walk.

In 2020, Anderson landed on the IL for almost two weeks due to forearm inflammation. He was still incredibly effective when on the mound, however, throwing 16 1/3 innings with a 0.55 ERA, 44.8% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate. He added another 14 2/3 frames in the postseason, with the Rays going all the way to the World Series, though with diminished effectiveness.

In Spring Training 2021, he suffered a partial tear of his UCL but opted to rehab the issue instead of undergoing Tommy John surgery, on the advice of the Rays’ medical staff and renowned surgeon Dr. Keith Meister. He threw six innings that year before eventually going the surgical route at the end of the season.

He was able to return to the mound on a rehab assignment July 22, beginning in the Florida Complex League before joining the Triple-A Durham Bulls. He’s thrown 9 1/3 innings with a 6.75 ERA in that rehab assignment so far with a 23.1% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. He had a much more palatable 3.86 ERA until his last outing, wherein he entered and faced just three batters, allowing two singles and a home run.

Rehab assignments for pitchers come with a maximum of 30 days, meaning the Rays had to activate him with that timeline expiring. His results during that rehab assignment are obviously a ways off from the form he showed in previous seasons, with that evidently being enough for the Rays to decide on giving him a bit more time to try to round into form. This will potentially have repercussions for Anderson from a service time perspective, as he came into this season with exactly three years in that department, putting him on track to reach the six years necessary for free agency after the 2024 season. Players on the 60-day IL continue to accrue MLB service time, meaning he’s added about 137 days to that total since Opening Day. But since 172 days are required to reach a full year, Anderson will come up short of the four-year mark unless he is quickly recalled and stays with the big league club down the stretch. If that doesn’t happen, it would push his free agency down the road another year. He qualified for arbitration for the first time this year and is earning a salary of $845MM, a bit above the $700K league minimum.

As for Sanders, 27, he’s spent his entire career with the Rays thus far, having been drafted by them in the 10th round in 2017. He was selected to the big league roster for the first time in April. He has split him time between Tampa and Durham this year, with better peripherals than results in the minors but the reverse in the majors. In 30 Triple-A innings, he has a 5.40 ERA with a 27.9% strikeout rate, 1.6% walk rate, .388 batting average on balls in play and 15.8% HR/FB rate. In the majors, he has thrown 14 2/3 innings with a 3.07 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate, .286 BABIP and no homers. With the trade deadline having passed, the Rays will have to place him on either outright or release waivers in the coming days. Since he has never previously been outrighted and has less than three years’ service time, he will be unable to reject an outright assignment in the event he clears waivers.

Wander Franco Pulled Off Rehab Assignment

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The chances of Wander Franco returning this season have taken a hit, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that the Rays’ shortstop has been pulled off his rehab assignment due to continued soreness in his right hand.

It’s been a frustrating season for the 21-year-old, the first campaign of the huge 11-year, $182MM extension he signed with the Rays in November. After years of hype as one of the top prospects in baseball, often being considered the very best, Franco arrived with aplomb last year. He got into 70 games in his debut season, hitting .288/.347/.463 for a wRC+ of 127, or 27% better than league average. At the end of that successful season, the Rays gave him the largest contract in team history, hoping to have him serve as the face of the franchise for the next decade-plus.

Unfortunately, it’s been a series of injury setbacks here in 2022. Franco missed most of June due to a quad strain, returning for about two weeks before landing on the IL again, this time due to discomfort in his hand and wrist area. The club later announced that Franco would undergo surgery to address damage to his hamate bone, providing a window of 5-8 weeks as his estimated recovery timeline. It was approximately five weeks later (on August 16) that Franco began his rehab assignment. However, it seems that the issue hasn’t quite cleared, with Franco now being shut down for a little bit longer.

This latest setback will put a dent in how much Franco can contribute for the club down the stretch. There are now just over six weeks remaining on the MLB schedule for the regular season. Though the club hasn’t provided any kind of updated timeline of what they expect for the next steps, Franco will first have to get beyond the soreness he’s experiencing and then resume his rehab assignment before the Rays can think about having him rejoin the big league club. Tampa currently holds the final Wild Card spot in the American League, though Minnesota is within a game and a half, with three other clubs with five games.

Until then, the Rays will likely continue slotting Taylor Walls into shortstop, as they have done for most of the games with Franco out of action. He’s hitting .179/.275/.297 on the year for a wRC+ of 73.

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