Tyler Glasnow Turns Heads During Live Batting Practice Session at Tropicana Field
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tyler Glasnow always looks good on the mound, but after throwing 21 pitches of live batting practice at Tropicana Field, he felt good, too.
Now comes the big part — how he feels in the next couple of days.
The 6-foot-8 starting pitcher is coming off 2021 elbow surgery. He's been grinding through rehab for months, and keeps getting closer and closer to a return.
No one know when, of course, but there is still plenty of hope that he can help the Rays down the home stretch and into the playoffs. So Tuesday's BP session was a big deal, so much so that many of his teammates came out of the clubhouse to watch, and even a dozen or so Los Angeles Angels players were on the field, too.
"It was nice to be out on the game mound. Guys were out here supporting me too, and I tried to recreate the atmosphere and being able to do a more normal starting routine coming out.'' Glasnow said. "It felt similar (to a normal start), without fans in the stands or anything. I weirdly had excitement adrenaline, and that felt good.''
The million-dollar question is if he can make it back this year, with six weeks to go before the postseason. The joke a few weeks ago was that he was progressing so well that he had gone from a ''zero percent chance'' to a ''more than zero.''
And that's a good thing.
"It's not a zero percent chance,'' said Glasnow, who has tried to remain cautious but curious through his rehab. "I think it's easy to be very optimistic because I felt really good and my velo was really good, execution was good. But if I'm not comfortable and I don't feel 100 percent ready to go, then I'm not going to push it.
"That's going to be the hardest thing for me to kind of do, because I really do want to come back and I want to help the team, especially with the position we're in. But I'm also not going to jeopardize the rest of my career. Then again, if I feel great, we'll address it when the time comes.''
Glasnow said the live BP against a pair of Rays minor-league hitters went as well as could be expected. He was throwing hard — in the high 90s, topping out at 97 mph — had good break on his slider and his command was excellent.
"I felt good. (The ball) came out well,'' Glasnow said. "Velo was good, spin was good, strike-throwing was good, especially with my slider. It's not like 100 percent, like with my slider, there's still some things I can work on next time.''
And what's next?
"I don't know. More live BPs, I guess,'' he said. "It's more about game reps. I feel really really good and I'm healthy. I think it's more about re-creating and repeating this atmosphere.
"The intensity today was more, so I think that'll be the key (to see how I feel). If I don't feel good, I'm not going to come back and push it. I don't want to have that voice in the back of head being like, 'I don't know.' If I go out here, I'm not going to try not to compete. I have to really focus on that, and figuring out how I feel.''
Glasnow said he usually feels worse the second day after throwing, so he'll be curious to see how he feels on Thursday after doing more during Tuesday's session.
"I'm more of a Day 2 (sore) guy. The next day, I usually feel fine,'' he said. "It's Day 2 sore for me. I've been getting normal muscle soreness, but nothing too crazy. I feel good and I can throw hard, so that's good.''
Since 2019, Glasnow has a 16-4 record with the Rays, and a 2.79 earned run average. At his peak, he's been one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League. He's glad to be back around his teammates again.
"It's awesome just being out with the team again, and traveling,'' he said. "We've been getting a lot of work done here, but it's been monotonous, been kind of boring. It's nice to be around the guys and get back out on the road. And today was cool. I liked having them all out here.''
Rays manager Kevin Cash was thrilled to see him throwing so comfortably, too. He knows there's still a way to go in his recovery, too. and there's still a lot of uncertainty about when Glasnow can pitch this season — if at all. His name game was on June 14 last season.
"I can appreciate what he's going through from his surgery to now,'' Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "There are so many inconsistencies in how you feel, how you bounce back. not everything is the same, so I'm glad he's being honest. And we need that honesty to make decisions going forward.
Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.