Rays starting rotation takes another hit

Right-hander Taj Bradley was scheduled to start Tuesday’s Grapefruit League contest for the Rays but was a late scratch. The righty is dealing with pectoral tightness and will get an MRI, per Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times (X links).

At this point, it’s unclear if the club considers the issue severe or if scratching Bradley was more precautionary, but the MRI suggests some level of concern. For the time being, it will likely be a source of worry for the club and its fans, especially with the precarious nature of the club’s rotation depth.

Last year,  Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahan underwent UCL surgery of some kind. McClanahan will likely miss the 2024 season while Rasmussen and Springs are likely looking at midseason returns. In addition to those injuries, the club also flipped Tyler Glasnow to the Dodgers in a cost-cutting move.

Coming into 2024, the Tampa rotation projects as Zach Eflin, Aaron Civale, Zack Littell, Ryan Pepiot and Bradley, with plenty of question marks in that group. Eflin made 31 starts last year but has battled persistent knee issues in his career and 2023 was just his second time getting over 130 innings in a season. Civale has dealt with various ailments, including shoulder, forearm and wrist injuries, having never hit 125 frames in any big league season of his career. Littell has primarily been a reliever and was only moved to a rotation gig by the Rays last year. Pepiot, acquired in the Glasnow deal, has been a notable prospect but has less than 80 big-league innings. His 127 2/3 innings in 2022, between the majors and minors, are his personal best.

Bradley came into 2023 as one of the club’s better prospects but didn’t hit the ground running in the big leagues. He posted a 5.59 earned run average in 104 2/3 frames last year despite strong strikeout and walk rates of 28% and 8.5%, respectively. A 67.7% strand rate may have hampered him, but the 23 home runs allowed during the season may have also played a role. ERA estimators remained fairly bullish that he deserved better than his bottom line results, as he had a 4.79 FIP and 3.82 SIERA last year.

Regardless of how one interprets last year’s results, Bradley came into camp as a key part of the rotation mix. With the absences of McClanahan, Rasmussen, and Springs and the general uncertainty around the healthy options, Bradley was going to be included in the plans for Tampa.

The club must dig further into its starting depth if he needs to miss any time. Shane Baz is on the roster but will face workload limitations this year after he missed all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery. Japanese hurler Naoyuki Uwasawa is in camp on a minor league deal, but there were concerns about his viability in the majors and he has allowed 13 earned runs in 5 2/3 spring innings thus far. Jacob Lopez is also on the 40-man but has just 12 1/3 innings of major league work thus far.

Overall, there’s a fair amount of precarity in that group. Any further subtractions will only exacerbate the situation, so the club will surely hope that the MRI doesn’t find anything concerning Bradley’s health.