{"id":61350,"date":"2025-08-12T01:34:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T01:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61350\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T01:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T01:34:07","slug":"shane-mcclanahan-undergoes-season-ending-arm-procedure-to-address-nerve-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61350\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane McClanahan Undergoes Season-Ending Arm Procedure To Address Nerve Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane McClanahan<\/a>\u2019s 2025 season is officially over, as Rays manager Kevin Cash<\/a> told reporters that the southpaw underwent a surgery on his throwing arm today, intended to try and fix a long-lingering nerve problem.\u00a0 The procedure officially closes the book on whatever chance there was that the southpaw could return to the majors before season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Troublingly, Cash indicated that there isn\u2019t any guarantee that the surgery will solve the issue once and for all.\u00a0 \u201c[The doctor] is not sitting there saying \u2019he\u2019s fixed.\u2019\u00a0 That\u2019s not the case,\u201d Cash told media, including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s, \u2019this is one step, and we\u2019ll see how this goes.\u2019\u00a0 And hopefully we get good results.\u00a0 And if we don\u2019t, then let doctors decide what else is needed, if anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The uncertain nature of nerve-related injuries has now led to months of frustration for McClanahan, and cost him another year of his promising career.\u00a0 It was almost exactly two years ago that McClanahan underwent a Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for all of 2024, though it seemed like he emerged from that rehab in good shape, as he tossed seven scoreless innings in Spring Training and looked well on his way being part of the Opening Day rotation.<\/p>\n

However, late in camp, the nerve problem in McClanahan\u2019s left triceps emerged.\u00a0 He began the year on the 15-day injured list, and was shifted to the 60-day IL near the end of April.\u00a0 McClanahan was feeling well enough to begin a minor league rehab assignment in July and pitched in three games before his rehab was shut down due to biceps tendinitis.<\/p>\n

During a radio interview on Friday, Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said<\/a> McClanahan\u2019s nerve problem was \u201cstill in play just enough\u201d to keep the left-hander from resuming his throwing progression, with \u201cno huge setbacks, but also no huge progress or breakthroughs.\u201d\u00a0 Neander also made note of the unique nature of the injury, saying \u201cthis is a new one to all of us really, and in many regards to the baseball community.\u00a0 So we\u2019re learning as we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

McClanahan\u2019s best-case scenario is now a clean bill of health for Opening Day 2026.\u00a0 While this gives McClanahan six months of recovery time until the start of Spring Training, it is clear that no timeline will be established until McClanahan is examined post-surgery.<\/p>\n

Losing McClanahan in 2023 was a big blow to a Rays team that reached the postseason, but was swept out of the wild card series by the eventual World Series champion Rangers.\u00a0 Tampa Bay went 80-82 in 2024 and, at 57-62 entering today\u2019s action, is on pace for another losing record, as some early-season success was undone by a brutal slump in July.\u00a0 One can only guess as to how the last three seasons might\u2019ve differed for the Rays if they\u2019d had a pitcher who was emerging as the ace of the rotation.<\/p>\n

In a rare case of a player getting his first taste of MLB action in the playoffs, McClanahan\u2019s first four games came during the 2020 postseason, as he posted an 8.31 ERA in 4 1\/3 relief innings for a Rays team that reached the World Series.\u00a0 McClanahan made his official debut in 2021, and\u00a0hit the ground running in 2021 by finishing seventh in AL Cy Young Award voting.\u00a0 He was then named an All-Star in both 2022 and 2023, and the 2022 campaign (McClanahan\u2019s only full big league season) saw him finish sixth in AL Cy Young Award voting.\u00a0 Over 404 2\/3 regular-season innings, McClanahan has a 3.02 ERA, 46.8% grounder rate, 28% strikeout rate, and 7.1% walk rate.<\/p>\n

Tampa signed McClanahan to a two-year, $7.2MM deal in January 2024 that allowed the two sides to avoid arbitration for the lefty\u2019s first two years of eligibility.\u00a0 As a Super Two player, McClanahan is arb-eligible both this winter and during the 2026-27 offseason, though his 2026 salary won\u2019t be very high given his two years on the IL.\u00a0 Injury uncertainty notwithstanding, there would seem to be very little chance the Rays would non-tender McClanahan given his modest price tag, and his upside if he is able to return healthy for 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane McClanahan\u2019s 2025 season is officially over, as Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters that the southpaw underwent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,49543,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-61350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-shane-mcclanahan","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}