PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Shane McClanahan walked off the mound after the first inning Tuesday afternoon, slowly making his way toward the Rays’ first-base dugout at Charlotte Sports Park, and pointed both hands to the sky.
It’s hard to explain the wave of emotions the 28-year-old left-hander experienced in that moment.
There was joy, of course, to be back on the mound in a competitive environment. There was relief that it felt so easy after feeling so hard every time he tried to throw last summer. There was excitement about what all that meant for him moving forward.
“I forgot that's how you're supposed to feel on the mound,” McClanahan said after pitching two scoreless innings. “I forgot what feeling good feels like.”
But there was something else, too. McClanahan said he felt the presence of his father, James “Clancy” McClanahan, who passed away in January. That’s why he was looking up as he neared the first-base line Tuesday afternoon.
“First game he's missed in my life, and definitely took those emotions with me a little bit,” McClanahan said afterward. “Had to make sure he was there watching, and I felt him. So, that was cool.”
It has been an emotional, trying time for McClanahan since he last pitched for the Rays on Aug. 2, 2023. First came his second Tommy John surgery, which wiped out his 2024 season. Then, in the final start of a healthy Spring Training last March, he sustained a freak nerve issue in his left triceps that sidelined him the rest of the year.
The two-time All-Star attempted to come back after slowly regaining control of the fingers in his left hand, but he still couldn’t feel his thumb when he made three Minor League rehab starts last July. Only after undergoing surgery last August to address the nerve issue was McClanahan able to begin a normal progression back to game action, capped by facing hitters in live batting practice during the first few weeks of camp.
“I'm ready to put this [stuff] behind me and be normal,” he said, smiling.
Tuesday brought the long-awaited next step in McClanahan’s journey back to normalcy and a spot in Tampa Bay’s rotation, and he looked a lot like himself in the Rays’ 3-1 win over the Phillies on Tuesday afternoon.
“I needed that,” McClanahan said. “That was fun.”
The southpaw gave up a pair of hits and struck out Bryan Rincon, the last batter he faced. He used everything in his four-pitch arsenal -- 12 fastballs, seven changeups, three curveballs and one slider -- and threw 16 of his 23 pitches for strikes.
Before the game, manager Kevin Cash said he just wanted to see McClanahan pitch two innings -- and walk off the mound with a smile on his face. He checked that box, too, in what Cash called a “very professional” outing.
“Every step he takes is probably a confidence boost,” Cash said. “He's done enough this offseason and building up to today that he had confidence in going in and doing what he was capable of doing.”
McClanahan’s fastball averaged 93.8 mph but touched 96.7 mph on his last pitch of the first inning. Pitching coach Kyle Snyder has encouraged McClanahan to pitch with a “throttle” on his intensity level this spring. Snyder even stood behind the mound during McClanahan’s first two live batting practice sessions, encouraging him to act as if it was Snyder in the batter’s box instead of, say, Yandy Díaz.
The idea is to keep the throttle in place for now, aiming for roughly 80% of his usual intensity, with the recognition that McClanahan will almost certainly reach back for more as the competition becomes more meaningful and intense.
Quantifying his effort level proved to be challenging on Tuesday. The left-center-field scoreboard wasn’t displaying velocity readings during the game, which McClanahan realized when he looked over his shoulder to check the speed of his first fastball to Justin Crawford. But he peered inside the dugout to check with Snyder, kept his adrenaline in check and still brought the heat.
“To me, it was actually kind of fun. I was like, 'I feel like I'm barely trying,' in terms of effort,” McClanahan said. “Compared to where I've been previously, with the intent of everything and the intensity of max effort, that was fun.”
The plan is to have McClanahan steadily progress through Spring Training, building up to the point that he can cover four or five innings when the season begins, but the Rays will monitor his innings throughout the season -- considering the unique nature of his injuries and how much time he’s missed.
If everything goes well, McClanahan is tentatively slated to start the fifth game of the season in Milwaukee, which would also put him in line to start the Rays’ first game back at Tropicana Field against the Cubs on April 6.
“Just kind of seeing how April goes, but managing that workload a little bit for him in those first two or three weeks,” Snyder said. “All of us are staying with him on a day-to-day basis, making sure that he's where he needs to be and there's no pivots on the on-ramp.”