ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Rays top starter Tyler Glasnow will meet with his doctor Tuesday expecting a recommendation for Tommy John surgery to repair a partially torn ligament in his elbow.
Glasnow, sidelined since June, has been playing catch and was cleared to throw off the mound for the first time on Friday while in the Dallas area for previously scheduled follow-up visits with doctors.
That session didn’t go well as he felt pain in the elbow in throwing only a handful of pitches, enough so that he said he was not confident he could comfortably return to pitch in a high-stakes atmosphere.
“It was very apparent that it was probably time to get it done,’' he said Saturday on a conference call.
Glasnow informed Rays officials Friday night that he was now expecting a recommendation for surgery when he meets with Dr. Keith Meister.
Glasnow said Saturday he is accepting of that course of action and looking forward to getting the issue resolved with the surgery, but acknowledged the decision is not final, and an additional course of rest and rehab, or a less invasive procedure, could be tried first.
If Glasnow, 27, has the surgery, he likely would miss all of the 2022 season as well, though he said Saturday there was a chance he could return by the end of season. He is under the Rays control through the 2023 season then will be a free agent.
“I’m not in any position to try to rush it,’' he said. “I just want to make sure I feel good. I’m just really excited to be able to pitch pain-free. It’s frustrating, but the long-term investment of doing this, I just think it’s going to be really beneficial to me to come back strong, healthy and pain-free in 2023.”
Glasnow was 5-2 with a 2.66 ERA through 14 starts this year when injured in June. Though he complained at the time that he injured his elbow after changing his grip adjusting to new rules prohibiting the use of foreign substances on the ball, he said Saturday the elbow has been an issue since 2019, when he also was sidelined for an extended period.
Though there was some possibility for Glasnow to return in September, Rays officials said they went into the trade deadline with the assumption he wasn’t coming back this season, and that if he did it would be a bonus, so it’s not like their strategy on getting a starting pitcher would have changed.
