Major League Baseball’s recent crackdown on the use of sticky substances by pitchers was the cause of the injury that put Tampa Bay Rays ace Tyler Glasnow on the injured list, he said. he said Tuesday.
The Rays placed Glasnow on the 10-day IL with a partial UCL tear and flexor strain. Glasnow, who has a 2.66 ERA with 123 strikeouts in 88 innings this season, said he previously used sunscreen and rosin to control the ball. But he had a “cold turkey” against the Washington Nationals two starts ago, he said, which caused pain after the start.
“I woke up the next day and it was like I was sore in places where I didn’t even know I had muscles,” Glasnow said. “I felt completely different. I changed my fastball grip and my curveball grip. I threw it the same way all the years I played baseball.”
Glasnow underwent an MRI in Chicago after feeling tightness and “a little tug” in his right elbow during Monday’s start against the White Sox. The 27-year-old left the game after the fourth inning in the Rays’ 5-2 victory.
Glasnow said MLB should have made changes during the offseason to give pitchers a chance to adjust.
“I just threw 80’s and something, and then you just told me I can’t use anything in the middle of the year?” he said. “I have to change everything I’ve been doing all season. Everything out the window, I had to start doing something completely new.
“And then I’m telling you, I really believe that’s why I got hurt. It’s me throwing 100 and 6-7 is why I got hurt, but it helped.”
The Rays said a timeline for Glasnow’s return will be determined after further medical assessment. Glasnow seemed to indicate it would be a long way back to the MLB’s leading spokes rotation.
“I’m sitting here, my lifelong dream, I want to go out and win a Cy Young. I want to be an All-Star and now it’s crap. Now it’s over, “he said.” And now I have to try to readjust to get back to the playoffs. “
MLB released its plan to end the widespread use of grip boosters by pitchers on Tuesday morning, saying it would suspend any player caught with foreign substances. Under the new plan, any pitcher who “possesses or applies” sticky substances will be expelled from the game and automatically suspended in accordance with past discipline. Repeat offenders will be subject to “progressive discipline” and clubs can also be penalized for non-compliance with the rules.
Pitchers can continue to use bags of rosin on the mound, but MLB has said players “cannot apply foreign substances of any kind to the ball.”
“I’m just frustrated that they don’t understand how difficult it is to start one, but to tell us to do something completely different in the middle of the season just doesn’t make sense,” said Glasnow. “It’s ridiculous. There has to be give and take here. You can’t just take it all out and not add something. The pitchers have to be able to have some kind of control or some kind of grip on the ball.
“I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I don’t want a fastball to go away and hit someone in the face like it once did. So I understand that you have to take an aggressive approach here, but I just think people are doing it wrong. “
In the two starts where Glasnow said he stopped using sunscreen and rosin to help grip baseball, he struck out 17 batters and allowed just three earned runs in 11 innings. .
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