Tyler Glasnow discusses his surgery: “I’m glad I got it done.”

One of the hardest things Rays fans have had to deal with this season was the loss of Tyler Glasnow, first to injury, then to Tommy John surgery. Glasnow was having a spectacular season, one that likely would have netted him a spot on the All-Star team, if not some serious Cy Young consideration. But all that will have to wait for another year, as Glasnow will sadly miss the remainder of 2021, and likely most of the 2022 season in recovery.

He’s not hiding away from the world, though. Currently, Glasnow is at home with his parents, and took an opportunity to co-host another episode of Jomboy Media’s The Chris Rose Rotation, where he spoke candidly (as always) with Rose about how is recovery is going, what he thinks his future looks like with the Rays, and there’s even a special guest appearance from everyone’s favorite baseball hero, Brett Phillips.

You can watch the full clip below, but we’ll cover some of the highlights here if you don’t have an hour to spare.

There was no avoiding the big topic at hand: Glasnow’s decision to have Tommy John surgery. Rose reminded Glasnow that the last time they recorded together, Glasnow was looking forward to participating in games by September and help the Rays with their postseason push, and wondered what changed in that time to make him decide to get the surgery. Glasnow compared it to his 2019 UCL injury, saying at the time he thought it was “not as severe as ‘19, I’ll be able to come back sooner.” It wasn’t until he was doing throwing, and building up the intensity of his pitches that “it began to feel weirder and weirder.” While he was able to throw upwards of 95 mph, he admitted, “the pain associated with throwing, it was just too much. It felt unnatural.”

Ultimately, he decided the best course was to get surgery, and without hesitation says, “I’m glad I got it done.” He told Rose that when they opened him up, the damage looked worse than x-rays had originally indicated, so it was probably a blessing in disguise he decided to get surgery when he did. Glasnow was also adamant that the team had his back the whole time in terms of the decision and it was “an open dialogue” all through his rehab, especially with pitching coach Kyle Snyder.

“The thing that sucks most is our team is so good and I can’t contribute,” Glasnow said, obviously not feeling sorry for himself, but just disappointed to be missing out on a great Rays season. If anything, Glasnow is looking at the positive aspects of the surgery, pointing out that if he was able to do as much as he did with an injured ligament over two years, that when he’s all healed up, “I really think I’d be able to come back and be a lot better of a pitcher.”

The discussion turned to Tyler’s future with the Rays, as Rose pointed out that the team could theoretically decide to non-tender him. Glasnow was quick to point out that he didn’t think this was likely, “I could get like non-tendered. I don’t know if that would necessarily happen. Because if I get non-tendered I’d be a free agent, and I don’t know if they want that. Because I don’t know. I could sign in-division. I don’t know if I would...”

He went on to acknowledge a different route they might explore. “But I think like for the most part when people get hurt they end up signing like a two year or maybe you can think about like an extension. There’s a bunch of different like, avenues to go down. It’s not something I’ve even like, I’ve talked with Neander and people about it. But I don’t know if that actually gets because there’s like so much stuff going on right now.”

Ultimately, he said that in-season isn’t really the time to hammer out deals like this between himself and the club, but that all avenues were being discussed and explored.

Discussion veered from the serious into much lighter fare as Glasnow admitted to letting himself indulge in “fat kid” days, where he might eat an entire pizza on his own. Once they stopped talking about food vices, Rose asked Tyler how his hertz were. If you’ve somehow managed to miss the boat on this clubhouse in-joke, check here for the origin story, but basically “hertz” represents a measurable level of happiness and satisfaction. Phillips considered 400 to be about average, so Glasnow said “I’m at about 550, 600. I’m generally above the norm.”

Then Brett Phillips joined the call to boost hertz all around. Rose couldn’t resist turning the questions to Phillips asking him about his recent run of grand slams, to which Phillips replied, “The headline should read ‘Local blind squirrel finds other squirrels stash of nuts they stashed away for winter.’”

Phillips also admitted he was a bit miffed he didn’t get to pitch in the most recent blow-out.

As usual, the whole conversation is worth a listen, as there’s a lot more fun discussion. Glasnow also covers the plans for his rehab in Florida, why the Rays don’t get respect on a broader scale, and which player he thinks deserved more national love.