The Rays are placing lefty Shane McClanahan on the 15-day injured list, president of baseball operations Erik Neander announced in an appearance on WDAE radio with Tom Krasniqi. Righty Alex Cook will be recalled for his major league debut in a corresponding move.
McClanahan exited yesterday’s start after three innings due to discomfort in his lower back. The team is hopeful that he’ll only miss two starts, Neander tells Krasniqi. Exact timing hinges on how he feels over the next week-plus, of course, but it’s notable that the team doesn’t currently think the issue will keep McClanahan sidelined for long.
The 29-year-old McClanahan missed the entire 2024-25 seasons following UCL surgery. The former first-round pick and top prospect was a Cy Young candidate for much of the ’23 season until a late injury took him out of the equation. He’s pitched like a top-of-the-rotation starter in each of his four big league seasons … when healthy enough to take the mound. The 6’3″, 210-pound southpaw has a career 3.04 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate in 503 2/3 big league innings — including a 3.09 mark in 99 frames this year.
While the Rays can’t be thrilled to see McClanahan’s back flare up like this, it does present the club an organic means of managing the excellent lefty’s workload. He pitched zero innings in ’24 and only 3 1/3 minor league frames last year. Expecting McClanahan to jump right back into the mix with 150 or more innings is a tall order. That may still prove to be the case, particularly if the Rays go on any kind of postseason run, but McClanahan’s arm will get a breather for the next couple weeks.
In the meantime, the Rays will trot out a rotation that also includes Drew Rasmussen, Nick Martinez, reliever-turned-starter Griffin Jax and breakout lefty Ian Seymour. Tampa Bay was already known to be on the lookout for rotation help even when McClanahan was healthy. They’ve been connected to most of the prominent names on the trade market, including Tarik Skubal. There’s a real chance the Rays do some big-game fishing, though even the Tampa Bay and Detroit front offices don’t yet know how the Skubal bidding will truly unfold in the next 72 hours.
Cook, 25, isn’t an option to step into McClanahan’s rotation spot. Although he’s “started” five games with Tampa Bay’s Triple-A club in Durham this year, all five were single-inning appearances as an opener. He’s a pure bullpen prospect whom the Rays drafted in the 12th round back in 2022.
Cook missed time with injury in 2024-25 but posted big numbers in each season when healthy. The Rays added him to the 40-man roster last November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. He’s been effective in Durham this season, logging 33 1/3 innings with a 3.78 ERA, a 28.5% strikeout rate and a 9.2% walk rate. He’s averaging just over 95 mph on his four-seamer and couples the pitch with an 86.5 mph slider and a more seldom-used 88 mph changeup.