Two-time All-Star Shane McClanahan, the Tampa Bay Rays’ opening-day starter, suffered a triceps injury in his final exhibition start Saturday and manager Kevin Cash said the left-hander will be out indefinitely.
McClanahan, 27, last pitched in the major leagues on Aug. 2, 2023, and underwent his second Tommy John surgery 18 days later. He sat out all of last season but came to camp confident he’d make his opening day assignment. McClanahan’s fastball was clocked at 99 mph in his first Grapefruit League outing.
Yet Saturday, he winced in pain after throwing a pitch to the 10th Boston Red Sox batter he faced, hopping twice and then leaving with a trainer.
McClanahan was scheduled to be the Rays’ opening day starter Friday, when they play host to the Colorado Rockies in their first game at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, their temporary home after hurricanes rendered Tropicana Field unplayable.
Cash told reporters that imaging performed Sunday will paint a more specific picture but that McClanahan will miss ‘some time.’
‘You feel for the person, just for what he’s gone through – the rehab, the build back up and being healthy for two months of spring training, and then this last start where, you know, something grabbed him,’ Cash said. ‘He felt it. I give him credit for saying it right then and not trying to pitch through anything. Fingers crossed, it’s a shutdown of minimal time.”
McClanahan was the American League starter in the 2022 All-Star Game and also made the AL squad in 2023. While the Rays brought six projected starting pitchers to camp and can absorb any extended absence from a numbers standpoint, any extended loss of their once and current ace would imperil their prospects in the AL East.
McClanahan had his first Tommy John reconstruction when he was 17; he had a stabilizing internal brace inserted during his second procedure.
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