Rays get good news on injured Jose Siri, Tyler Glasnow, Ryan Thompson
ST. PETERSBURG — Finally, the Rays are getting some good health news.
Jose Siri began working his way back on Friday. The centerfielder was in the lineup for Triple-A Durham in his first rehab assignment as the designated hitter, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
“The plan is for an off day the next day, then play Sunday, and then we’ll go from there,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said before Friday night’s game against the White Sox.
Siri was placed on the injured list April 8 with a strained right hamstring after making a running catch at the wall.
Reliever Ryan Thompson, who went on the IL with a lat strain on April 15, is expected back soon after he is eligible.
“Thompson is doing very, very well,” Cash said. “I would expect that it would be a very minimal stint for him.”
Starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow will face batters on Monday. The right-hander, who began the season on the injured list because of a strained oblique suffered early in spring training, will throw two “innings,” Cash said.
“He’s doing well. He’s going to pitch, I think, two innings on Monday in Twin Lakes, some type of live BP or simulated something,” Cash added.
Cash said reliever Shawn Armstrong, who is on the 60-day IL with a neck injury, began throwing off the mound.
He added that reliever Andrew Kittredge, who had Tommy John surgery last June, and right-hander Shane Baz, who had the same elbow reconstruction surgery in September, are “a ways away, but are doing well.” Kittredge could come back for the second half of the season, but Baz is expected to miss all of 2023.
Dave’s day
The Rays will honor late radio voice Dave Wills before Saturday’s game against the White Sox. Wills, 58, passed away suddenly on March 5, hours after calling a spring training game. The native of the Chicago suburbs spent years with the White Sox before coming to the Rays.
“It just continues to reinforce how important he was to our organization, and certainly the friendship that I had with him and that so many people within the organization did,” Cash said. “I’m confident his family will receive it well, but there’s not a day that goes by that he’s not thought about.”
Fair warning
All of baseball saw the replays of Mets ace Max Scherzer getting ejected by umpires Wednesday for violating MLB’s prohibitions on foreign substances. Scherzer was suspended 10 games and fined an undisclosed amount of money. Four days earlier, Yankees starter Domingo German underwent extra scrutiny from umpires about his glove and hands.
It seems MLB is cracking down on pitchers again, but Cash isn’t worried.
“I just trust that they’re watching the same thing I am and that you are, and just hope they’re making very wise decisions going into a ballgame,” Cash said.
Saturday’s starter Shane McClanahan said that the umpires have been more diligent about checking pitchers lately.
“But I don’t cheat,” he said, “so I am not worried about it.”
Pitch perfect
Because they were on the road on April 15, the Rays held their Jackie Robinson Day celebration Friday. St. Petersburg native Will Packer, a film and television producer who has produced more than 30 feature films, including “Think Like a Man” and “Ride Along,” as well as the 2022 Academy Awards, threw out the ceremonial first pitch along with Mordecai Walker, the oldest living resident of the historic Gas Plant District. The Rays also recognized their 2023 Racial Equity Grant recipients.
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