Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The Tampa Bay Rays entered the 2015 season with zero expectations from everyone outside the organization. Manager Joe Maddon left the club for an opportunity with the Chicago Cubs. General manager Andrew Friedman left the team to join the Los Angeles Dodgers. New general manager Matthew Silverman hired a first-time manager in former major leaguer Kevin Cash. Silverman also traded one of the team’s best players, Wil Myers, to the San Diego Padres. All of this moving and shaking had the makings of a difficult year for the Rays, but through 29 games the team has an above .500 record (15-14), sits in second in the AL East only three games back of the New York Yankees and looked like a dark horse to make a surprising playoff run this season.
Thursday, those playoff hopes were dealt a major setback when it was reported that starting pitcher Alex Cobb, who has been rehabbing an elbow injury, was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). Cobb says that he is going to continue to try and pitch for now, but Tommy John surgery is still a possibility. Cobb should look no further than his fellow AL East counterpart, Masahiro Tanaka, who has been pitching with a partial tear of his UCL for almost a year now and doesn’t even begin to resemble the pitcher he was pre-injury. Cobb should get the surgery now and hope to be ready to go sometime next season instead of risking hurting his team or further injuring his elbow.
Cobb’s healthy return would’ve been a big boost for the Rays as the team tries to conquer the odds and make the playoffs. As a result, I don’t see any circumstances where the Rays can make the playoffs. The team is built on pitching and defense and losing Cobb for the season is too big of a loss to overcome.
Jason Fletcher is a MLB writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google+.
