Top AL starting pitcher ‘highly unlikely’ to pitch again in 2023

Tampa Bay Rays supervisor Kevin Money delivered some unhealthy information for his pitching workers on Tuesday when he introduced that beginning pitcher Shane McClanahan is “extremely unlikely” to pitch again in 2023. 

Money mentioned that “all the pieces is on the desk” for McClanahan as he seeks a second opinion on his injured left forearm. Surgical procedure is a really actual chance for him as he prepares to satisfy with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister.

McClanahan struggled in his most up-to-date begin, permitting 5 earned runs in 4 innings in opposition to the New York Yankees again on Aug. 2. 

If he’s unable to pitch once more this season, that may be a crushing blow to the Rays rotation as McClanahan is just not solely their ace, but in addition among the finest pitchers in all of baseball.

He completed sixth within the American League Cy Younger voting a yr in the past with a 2.54 ERA, and as of Friday, had a 3.29 mark that locations him ninth within the American League and twelfth in all of Main League Baseball.

It simply provides to the uncertainty surrounding a Rays staff that opened the season on a historic tempo that regarded to make them the runaway World Sequence favourite within the American League. Since beginning with a 30-9 report by the center of Might, Tampa Bay has gone simply 38-37 within the 75 video games since. Issues have been much more bleak over the previous 41 video games the place they’re simply 17-24. 

It’s a staff that has been trending within the improper path for a number of months now and won’t have its greatest beginning pitcher for the rest of the season and the playoffs. The Baltimore Orioles have already leaped over them within the American League East division race, and the wild card is beginning to get a little bit extra uncomfortable. The Rays nonetheless personal the highest wild-card spot as of Tuesday with a four-game lead, however contemplating the place they began in April and Might, that’s most likely not the place they anticipated to be in early August.