The Tampa Bay Rays took another hit to their rotation Tuesday, and this one comes with real concern attached.
Shane McClanahan has been placed on the 15-day injured list because of left forearm tightness, according to Ryan Bass on X. The timing is what makes this one sting: McClanahan had just started Sept. 3 against the Texas Rangers and worked five innings on 72 pitches.
It was not his cleanest outing. McClanahan allowed four earned runs on six hits and one walk while striking out three. It was also just his fourth start back after missing a little more than two weeks with a sore mid-back.
The irony is hard to miss. The Rangers were also the opponent when McClanahan suffered the back injury that sent him to the IL in the first place, and now another start against Texas has ended with him back on the shelf.
For McClanahan, the setback lands after a long and difficult stretch just to get back on a big league mound. In 2023, he suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery, then missed the 2024 season.
In his attempted comeback in 2025, he dealt with a nerve issue in his elbow and never made it back to a Major League mound, leaving him out for a second straight year. His debut this year was his first appearance in a Big League game in over 2.5 years.
The Rays announced that left-hander Shane McClanahan was placed on the 15-day IL with left forearm tightness and right-hander Alex Cook was recalled from Triple-A Durham.
Before this latest issue, McClanahan had been putting together a strong season. In 2026, he has made 24 starts and thrown 118 innings with a 3.36 ERA and 106 strikeouts. He also owns a 128 ERA+, a 3.49 FIP and 1.4 bWAR.
With McClanahan out, Ian Seymour and Jax will continue to fill out the rotation behind Drew Rasmussen, Nick Martinez and Freddy Peralta.
Cook is back on the 28-man roster for the second time this week. He had been part of the roster expansion to 28 along with Victor Mesa Jr., but was sent down when Jax was activated.
In Other News...
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Shane McClanahan was locked in a tight game until the fifth, when the Rangers finally cracked it open and shifted the tone for good. The loss only added to the frustration around Tampa Bay, and it also put a spotlight on a matchup that has been especially unfriendly to the Rays whenever Quantrill takes the mound. [Read more 🡒]
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What makes the role worth watching is how unusual it is for a young catcher to be used this way so quickly, especially one who arrived as an 18th-round pick and had to work his way into the big leagues. The Rays have even embraced the idea of a "catching closer," which says plenty about how they view Piper's fit in those moments. The real question now is how far they are willing to push that experiment when the pressure rises and the game is on the line. [Read more 🡒]