Rays plan to limit Glasnow with extra rest, shortened starts

The Tampa Bay Rays are riding high atop the American League East thanks in large part to Tyler Glasnow's breakout performance in April.

But despite Glasnow turning into a legitimate Cy Young candidate almost overnight, Tampa Bay is taking no chances. Going forward, the team is planning to scale back its use of the AL's ERA leader in order to reduce his workload.

"He threw 112 innings last year and we have to monitor that," Rays manager Kevin Cash told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. "Believe me, it's tough for (pitching coach Kyle Snyder) and I to take him out of the game when he’s pitching like that."

The 25-year-old has dazzled in the early goings of 2019. He's 6-0 through his first seven starts and leads all Junior Circuit starters in wins, ERA (1.47), WHIP (0.86), ERA+ (296), and BB/9 (1.5) while ranking second in WAR (1.5).

Tampa Bay's plan for limiting Glasnow is twofold. In addition to giving him six days' rest whenever possible, the team also plans to shorten some of his starts regardless of performance. That means Glasnow might not have many more opportunities to pitch into the seventh inning, as he did Friday during a dominant shutout performance in Baltimore.

"Those innings add up after a while," Cash explained. "If we can get him extra days, we're going to do that. If we've got to shave an inning off of him per start, like (Friday) night we could have taken him out after the sixth. Those are things we have to monitor and consider here early in the season."

The Rays will put their plan into action by skipping Glasnow's scheduled turn Wednesday against Arizona; instead, he'll start one of their contests against the Yankees next weekend. He'll potentially make that start on nine days' rest, depending on how Tampa Bay lines up the rotation.

Glasnow's seven shutout innings on Friday marked just the third time in seven starts that he's lasted beyond the sixth frame and only the second instance in which he's thrown over 90 pitches.