Rays injury-prone reliever heads to IL yet again

The Rays placed right-hander Pete Fairbanks on the 15-day injured list prior to Monday’s game, with a retroactive placement date of May 28.  Fairbanks is dealing with left hip inflammation, which prevented his planned outing in Sunday’s game with the Dodgers. Trevor Kelley was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move, as while Kelley was only just optioned to Durham yesterday, he is able to make a quick return to the majors due to the injury situation.

Fairbanks was warming up in the bullpen yesterday when “his hip locked up,” as manager Kevin Cash described the situation to reporters.  Speaking to the media again Monday, Cash said Fairbanks will undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the problem.

Injuries have unfortunately been pretty common for Fairbanks throughout his pro career, two Tommy John surgeries before he even made his MLB debut in 2019. He was limited to 71 appearances in 2021-22 due to shoulder problems and a lat strain, with the injuries cumulatively keeping on the IL for roughly five months.  Fairbanks also missed two weeks earlier this month due to a minor forearm strain, and his ongoing battle with Raynaud’s disease has sometimes caused him to miss a few games here and there due to numbness or a cold feeling in his fingers.

Despite this checkered health history, Tampa Bay still felt comfortable enough to sign Fairbanks to a three-year, $12M contract extension this past winter because the righty has often looked like a frontline relief arm when healthy. Over 105 innings since the start of the 2020 season, Fairbanks has a 2.57 ERA, 32.4% strikeout rate, and 9.7% walk rate, as well as increasingly good soft-contact numbers.  A hard thrower who averaged 99mph on his fastball last season, Fairbanks’ velo was down a bit to 97.8mph this season, though his forearm problem might have had something to do with that minor drop.

Losing Fairbanks for at least 15 days won’t help a Tampa bullpen that has been pretty ordinary this season, despite the Rays’ overall success.  Injuries have somewhat thinned the Rays’ seemingly inexhaustible pitching depth at the major and minor league levels, so Tampa Bay might be on the lookout for relief pitching heading into the trade deadline.