Tampa Bay Rays Get Horrible Injury Update on Key Starting Pitcher

The Tampa Bay Rays have gotten dreadful injury news on starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen.

The Tampa Bay Rays, in a battle to win the franchise's first World Series, received devastating injury news on Saturday on starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen.

The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

Rasmussen (elbow) will undergo an internal brace procedure and won't return until the middle of next season, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

ANALYSIS
The Rays had previously hoped that Rasmussen would be able to return late in this season after he hit the 60-day injured list with a right flexor strain in mid-May, but that won't be the case. The righty will avoid undergoing Tommy John surgery for the third time in his career, but not by a very wide margin. The internal brace alternative is a similar surgery and carries a recovery time that's at best only somewhat shorter.

Rasmussen was one of the best pitchers in the American League this year when healthy, posting a 2.62 ERA.

He made his major league debut in the COVID 2020 season with the Milwaukee Brewers but was acquired by Tampa Bay in 2021.

For his career, he's 20-10 in 83 games. He had a lifetime ERA of 2.97 and a 1.09 WHIP.

The Rays entered play on Saturday at 57-34 and in first place in the American League East. In addition to Rasmussen's injury, the team is also out starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs for the year.

The Rays will close out the first half of the season on Sunday against the Atlanta Braves. First pitch of that game will be 1:40 p.m. ET.

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