The Rays were dealt a frustrating blow this evening, as reports that southpaw has paused his throwing progre sion and is seeking additional medical opinions on the nerve i sue in his triceps thats kept him sidelined since Spring Training. The decision came after McClanahan was not feeling 100% during his first full-distance bullpen se sion. Manager described the situation to reporters (including Topkin) as McClanahan being kind of in shutdown mode. Its tough news for Rays fans, as the talented left-hander was in late July as recently as last week. McClanahan hasnt pitched in the majors since 2023 due to Tommy John surgery and the aforementioned nerve i sue, but emerged as one of baseballs most talented young starters during his three seasons in the league from 2021-23. He sports a career 3.02 ERA and 3.36 FIP acro s 404 2/3 innings of work. His resume also includes a fantastic 28.0% career strikeout rate and a 46.8% ground ball rate for his career. Not being able to lean on McClanahans incredible talent at the top of the rotation last year is Drew Verhagen Jersey a major part of why the Rays stumbled to an 80-82 record and mi sed the postseason. Things are going better this year, as Tampas 36-31 record puts them in the second of the ALs three Wild Card spots, just five games back of the Yankees for the AL East lead. The contributions of young bats like and have been key to the clubs succe s this year, and while has done an admirable job as the teams ace this year the Rays were surely counting on the return of McClanahan to help lift them down the stretch. Outside of Rasmu sen and a decent mid-rotation showing from , the Rays havent gotten the best results from their rotation this year. and have both been below-average pitchers this season, while has posted average results with shaky peripherals. A perennially changing but always talented cast of characters led by in the bullpen has been excellent as always, but a strong bullpen can only do so much to prop up a rotation that lands in the bottom ten in baseball with a lackluster 4.35 FIP. Its at least po sible that McClanahans search for additional opinions will confirm that hes ready to resume ramping up and this will be only a minor setback in his rehab, but for a pitcher who was already not guaranteed to return before August theres real reason for concern that he could run out of time to get back before the end of the regular season in late September. Should the Rays manage to keep the good times rolling and enter July as trade deadline buyers, the news regarding McClanahan seems likely to further amplify their need for rotation help. Tampa offloaded veteran rotation pieces and at last summers deadline, but adding a similar mid-rotation veteran to this pitching staff would go a long way to bolstering the rotation. Eflin himself could be on the market once again depending on how the Orioles decide to approach trade season in the midst of a nightmare year, and other pieces who could at least theoretically move this summer include players like , , , and although many of those players play for teams on the fence between buying and selling this summer. Ryan Tepera Jersey