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To say the Tampa Bay Rays have been ravenged by injuries would be a tremendous understatement.
Heading into the season, the Rays pitching staff was thought to be one of their strongest features but the majority of the players that would have made up that staff are currently on the Injured List and several of them won’t be back until next season or even later.
In no particular order, here are the pitchers currently on the Injured List for the Rays:
- Yonny Chirinos
- Brendan McKay
- Charlie Morton
- Jose Alvarado
- Nick Anderson
- Oliver Drake
- Andrew Kittredge
- Colin Poche
- Chaz Roe
Meanwhile, the upstart Jalen Beeks is likely ticketed to join them after leaving Tuesday’s game with an apparent injury to his pitching arm.
While the extent of the injury has yet to be determined (at least publicly), team officials fear it could be yet another UCL injury, which would sideline Beeks for the rest of the season.
That would be a total of 10 above average big league arms on the shelf for the division leading Rays, who have had to rely on their tremendous depth to field a full roster.
Of those 10 pitchers, Chirinos, McKay, Kittredge, and Poche are all out for the season after undergoing surgeries for each of their respective ailments.
As for the remaining five players, Jose Alvarado has been shutdown completely while dealing with a shoulder injury. There has been little no update on his status.
Charlie Morton and Oliver Drake are also progressing along, albeit at a slow pace. Morton threw an encouraging bullpen session on Tuesday and after some more rehab outings at the Rays alternate training site in Port Charlotte, could return late next week. Drake is behind Morton in terms of progress, but as a reliever, he’ll need less conditioning to return and is on pace for returning near the same time as Morton late next week.
The good news is that Chaz Roe and Nick Anderson are reportedly doing well and could return when eligible on Sunday.
Regardless of returning names, the Rays will undoubtedly try to make more than one trade this week ahead of Monday’s trade deadline to buoy the bullpen after the loss of Beeks.