Rays hopeful McClanahan (back) requires brief IL stint for recurring issue

ST. PETERSBURG -- Given all he has been through over the past three years, the idea of spending more time on the injured list was, obviously, not terribly appealing to Shane McClanahan.

But after leaving his start against the Rangers on Thursday with left mid-back tightness, McClanahan recognized that a few weeks off the mound will be in the best interest of both himself and the Rays.

Tampa Bay placed McClanahan on the 15-day injured list on Friday and recalled right-handed reliever Alex Cook from Triple-A Durham. The good news? The Rays hope that McClanahan will miss only two starts while serving a short stint on the IL.

“I don't want to speculate or obviously put stuff out there that could be wrong, but hopefully it's just a minimal thing,” McClanahan said Friday afternoon. “Just use these next two weeks to kind of get the body right, get fresh and help this team win a lot more meaningful baseball games these next couple months.”

During a WDAE radio interview on Friday, Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said McClanahan would likely miss only two starts before returning.

“You feel for Mac because his body of work has been tremendous. He wants to be out here competing, and I'm very confident he'll be out there real soon,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We'll probably take the ball out of his hand, get some treatment on his back and look to build him right back up pretty quick.”

The left-hander would have been scheduled to pitch against the Rockies at Coors Field on Tuesday night. The Rays haven’t decided who will take his place.

Of course, McClanahan’s spot in the rotation won’t come around until after Monday’s 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline. The Rays’ roster could look different by then, anyway, as they are scouring the market for starting pitching while being linked to big names like Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and Mets right-hander Freddy Peralta.

Tampa Bay was already expected to pursue another starter before the Deadline, as its starters are facing a variety of workload concerns. Chief among them is McClanahan, who has put together a 3.09 ERA in 99 innings over 20 starts after missing the past two years due to Tommy John surgery and a nerve issue in his left triceps.

There was already an obvious need for additional innings. The Rays’ status as the American League’s top team (64-44 entering Friday night’s game) provides even more motivation for Neander to bring in someone who could make an impact in October.

And McClanahan’s injury is another reminder that time is running out to add both.

“The way our five starters have been throwing the ball, if you had 5-10 games to go, [you’d] feel really good about this group. But you don’t. You’ve got two months and hopefully another,” Neander said on WDAE. “Given Mac’s history, just given the history of the bunch … you also need to make sure you’ve got plenty of gas left in the tank the rest of the way. Because of that, even before Mac, you’re in a spot where you’re looking to see, ‘How do we best maintain the quality of our starting performance but also take care of these guys?’

“That leads us to looking around to see if there’s somebody we can bring in to help in that regard, certainly. Not much different, but [it] does create an opening now, at least for a few weeks, that wasn’t there before. We need to make sure that, for us to have a deep run, those guys have plenty left in the tank.”

In a way, McClanahan’s time on the IL could help in that regard. The expectation has been that the lefty will pitch around 150 innings this year, the same threshold Drew Rasmussen reached in his return to the rotation last season. After a few weeks off, there should be less of a need to manage his innings.

“Hopefully at that point he can let it rip the rest of the way and help us get to where we’re looking to go,” Neander said.

McClanahan said after Thursday’s win that he has dealt with similar tightness during previous outings this season, but this time it was “just a little bit more prevalent, and I couldn’t shake it.”

He said he woke up Friday “feeling OK and ready to put this thing behind me.”

“Obviously, no one wants to go on the IL, and I've been a little averse to that word after kind of what I've been through,” McClanahan added. “But ultimately, had the conversation with Cashy and [pitching coach Kyle Snyder], and this is going to be the best thing for me, the best thing for the team right now.”