Per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Rays right-hander Jason Adam was unavailable during tonight’s 7-6 loss to the Guardians due to an oblique strain that will send him to the injured list. Adam hasn’t pitched since August 27 due to the issue. It’s another devastating injury for Tampa’s pitching staff, which has already lost three of its five opening day rotation members for the season in Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahan. Now, the bullpen has lost perhaps its most reliable setup arm for right-hander Pete Fairbanks.
After a sensational 2022 campaign with the Rays where Adam posted a 1.56 ERA in 67 appearances, the 31-year-old righty has taken a step back but is still dominant with a 2.67 ERA in 54 innings this season, 56% better than league average by measure of ERA+. With Adam headed to the IL, it’s fair to wonder if his regular season is in jeopardy, though without confirmation from Rays brass its hard to speculate on a timetable for return given the considerable variance in severity regarding oblique injuries. With Adam headed to the shelf, the Rays figure to rely on Fairbanks, Colin Poche, and Robert Stephenson to cover the late innings, with veteran Andrew Kitteredge as a potential X-factor for the bullpen as he returns from last year’s Tommy John surgery.
More from around the AL East…
- The Blue Jays had interested in then-Mets outfielder Mark Canha prior to the trade deadline, when he was ultimately traded to the Brewers. Per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet, the club considered dealing for an additional bat like Canha or fellow Met Tommy Pham (who was eventually traded to Arizona) before ultimately opting to rely on prospect Davis Schneider to boost the offense down the stretch. While the decision to lean on Schneider looks prescient as the 24-year-old has set the world on fire with a 270 wRC+ in his first 15 games, a bat like Canha or Pham would surely help cover for the loss of Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman to the injured list earlier this week. Nicholson-Smith also notes that the club rebuffed interest from a free agent middle infielder toward the end of August in deference to Ernie Clement, who like Schneider has also delivered in a small sample size since taking over for Bichette at shortstop.
- Orioles right-hander Tyler Wells is struggling with arm fatigue as he converts to a bullpen role with Triple-A Norfolk, as manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Jake Rill of MLB.com) today. As Rill notes, Wells last pitched on August 25, with Hyde noting that the righty hasn’t “bounced back” from his last outing as hoped. Wells posted a 3.18 ERA in 104 2/3 innings of work prior to the All Star break but was rocked for 11 runs in nine innings of work in three appearances after the break, prompting the club to demote the 29-year-old hurler for a conversion to the bullpen.
Rays have been dealing with “minor” issues for weeks now.
Title mentions AL East and there’s nothing on either the Yankees or the Red Sox. Oh, how the beasts have been slayed.
Should we start a petition to Tim about the obvious bias? Tim: “They suck. There’s nothing to write about. Maybe next year.”
Dewey – The meek shall inherit the earth.
Next year is the 20th anniversary, chance to relive the good times.
They may have to bring back the 2004 team to Fenway some day during the season. Sox fans won’t have anything else to root for. Bloom destroyed this team and he and Cora should in no way be allowed back after this season.
Milt- They honor championship teams every 5 years, so I fully expect them to do a pregame ceremony on a weeknight against a bad team to sell tickets.
I actually feel Bloom has done what needed to be done. At first I was against firing DD but the farm is much better and this team has a chance to return to the playoffs next year if the starting staff next season has a combined strong year and team defense improves big time.
Dewey – Do you think Dombrowski left a bad farm system with Bello, Casas, Crawford, Duran, Rafaela, Houck?
Overall, he left a system that had nothing in double or triple A. Thus, nothing to replace free agents or injured player. That said, I was against the firing but we can’t live in the past. Bloom made a couple mistakes but overall has done well. Everyone wants instant gratification but his moves seems to have deepened the system so hopefully they can be a continuous pipeline.
Dewey – I agree about living in the past, I just don’t think Dombrowski’s prospects should be credited to Bloom.
I think Bloom’s contributions to the farm system have a lot more to do with good draft positioning because of last place finishes, trading of inherited ML players for prospects, and additional draft picks from losing free agents.
Even good draft picking doesn’t guarantee anything. To me Bloom won the Bennie trade, won the Vasquez trade and looks good with Yoshida and even Duvall and Turner (stop gap moves who both could re-sign if the team feels replacements aren’t ready. Mistakes were going for it last year without getting under the taxes to ensure better picks for their free agents. I’ve cherry picked but sometimes how you are as a leader is measured by who you kept in addition to who you traded. Fever, you want DD to get credit for certain draft picks and I want Bloom to get some love for not moving them. I just feel that the worst move is to fire Bloom and start over.
Of Chris Sale’s or Giancarlo Stanton’s signing?
Shut Wells down? Shoot for next season.
If Schneider hits he should play 2B (which he has). Move Whit to LF, Varsho to right bench. Right now Cavan and Espinal deserve to play ahead of Varsho. Varsho can come off the bench to play D.