HEADLINE

Report: Tommy John surgery likely for Rays P Tyler Glasnow

Field Level Media

July 31, 2021 at 5:33 pm.

Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Tyler Glasnow likely will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, ESPN reported Saturday.

Glasnow has a partial tear of his the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing arm. And while there is a late-stage chance doctors could steer him toward rehab, surgery likely will be recommended, per the report.

He hasn’t pitched since June 14 against the Chicago White Sox. He left that game — a 5-2 win — after just four innings and 53 pitches. The Rays announced the following day that he had a flexor strain and a partially torn UCL and placed him on the injured list.

Following his diagnosis, Glasnow blamed Major League Baseball’s crackdown on pitchers applying foreign substances to the ball for his injuries.

Glasnow, who turns 28 next month, said then that the only substance he’d ever used was sunscreen — as opposed to something like Spider Tack, one particularly sticky substance in the league’s crosshairs — and he decided to stop using it before MLB began its enhanced enforcement of foreign substance rules.

“I switched my fastball grip and my curveball grip,” Glasnow told reporters. “I had to put my fastball deeper into my hand and grip it way harder. Instead of holding my curveball at the tip of my fingers, I had to dig it deeper into my hand. I’m choking the (expletive) out of all my pitches.”

Glasnow said his elbow pain dates back to June 8 in a start against the Washington Nationals, in which he said he pitched without using any substances on the ball.

“I woke up the next day and I was sore in places I didn’t even know I had muscles in,” he said.

In 14 starts this season, Glasnow is 5-2 with a 2.66 ERA. He has 123 strikeouts in 88 innings.

In 104 games — 65 starts — with the Pittsburgh Pirates (2016-18) and Rays, Glasnow is 20-20 with a 4.04 ERA.