Bring on the good news: Rays get win, plus Drew Smyly's planned Friday return
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- This, at least, is some light within the darkness. This is a rare blip of good Tampa Bay Rays injury news in a month that has been full of bad. This is a reason to anticipate what will arrive soon instead of toiling over all that's gone.
Newsflash: Left-hander Drew Smyly will make his season debut Friday.
Stop the presses.
Freeze the Earth.
No, you have not entered The Twilight Zone.
The Rays actually received a positive injury headline Wednesday, not one that added more ink to their list of walking wounded.
"It feels like someone goes down every day right now," Smyly said with a grin at Tropicana Field, before the Rays' 7-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox. "So it's good to be able to get one guy off the DL instead of on the DL."
Certainly, Smyly's return won't be the answer to all the injury ills that have tormented Tampa Bay in this young season. But this is a start. Heck, it's a reason to consider something other than the Rays' ravaged roster.
Before he developed left shoulder tendinitis in spring training, Smyly was expected to be a pillar within a rotation that looked to be the American League East's best. Of course, those plans placed under the finest letterhead were run through a paper shredder with spring injuries to Smyly, plus right-handers Alex Cobb (right forearm tendinitis) and Alex Colome (pneumonia). Before Wednesday's game, the Rays' staff held a 4.24 ERA in their 6-8 start, compared to their opponents' 3.57 ERA. This wasn't exactly the sprint out of the gate that manager Kevin Cash and Matt Silverman, Tampa Bay's president of baseball operations, had in mind.
But more stability should arrive with Smyly's return.
Good thing, too, because as far as injuries go, the Rays' April has included more turbulence than a twin-prop plane with one busted propeller.
"It's nice to have that healthy news where somebody is back and not going to the DL -- somebody is coming off of it for once," Rays right-hander Jake Odorizzi said. "So it's nice to get that trend kind of flipped around, and we're ready for everybody to come off of it."
You want to talk everybody? Here's the Rays' list of the afflicted, beyond Smyly: Cobb, Colome, left-hander Matt Moore, relievers Jake McGee, Jeff Beliveau and Burch Smith, designated hitter John Jaso, plus infielders Ryan Brett, Nick Franklin and James Loney.
Catch all that?
The 11 players on the disabled list represent the most in the majors. The amount also sets a team record for the most at one time, surpassing the 10 on the DL for parts of May 2012 and several instances in 1998-1999.
This is more than a hurdle for Cash to overcome in his first season as a manager. This is like trying to scale a 20-foot barbed wire fence above water with starving sharks below.
Early, Cash has learned the valuable lesson that no team can have too much depth. The injuries to the Rays' staff are particularly troublesome, since pitching figured to be Tampa Bay's strength entering the spring. At times, Nathan Karns, Matt Andriese and Erasmo Ramirez have struggled to serve as Band-Aids.
Smyly's presence will offer some semblance of normalcy. He won't receive a breezy assignment in his return -- the Toronto Blue Jays' bash brothers, Jose Bautista and Juan Encarnacion, will wait at Tropicana Field with their wicked lumber -- but he'll be a welcome sight to slide into the rotation next to Odorizzi and right-hander Chris Archer. This is a step forward.
"First of all, we've got to build him back up," Cash said of Smyly. "He's going to come back and keep continuing his pitch count. But from the way he finished up last year, he can be a very good pitcher for us. We're looking forward to it."
There's something to that building-up idea. Smyly hasn't thrown in a regular-season major-league game since he tossed six innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 6, 2014. He was strong in posting a 1.70 ERA in seven starts with the Rays last season, but Tampa Bay must treat his comeback with care. Already, this absence has revealed his value.
The only thing that could be worse than Smyly's time away would be seeing him land on the disabled list again. The Rays must treat the letters "D" and "L" like live grenades.
"You sit around all offseason, and the offseason's really long, especially when you don't make the playoffs," said Smyly, who's a career 19-13 with a 3.26 ERA in 114 appearances (43 starts). "You just sit there and wait and wait and wait, and the spring comes, and you get hurt, and you have to wait more. ... It has felt like a good while since I've pitched in a major-league game, but I'm excited to go out there.
"It feels like half our team is on the DL, but that's baseball. It happens. It could happen to anyone. So you've just got to get yourself back and healthy and help the team win on the field."
His awaited first step back onto the mound will be taken Friday.
Finally, there's a flash to break up the familiar black.
You can follow Andrew Astleford on Twitter @aastleford or email him at aastleford@gmail.com.
