ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — If the Tampa Bay Rays are going to hang in the AL playoff race, they’ll have to do it without reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
The 26-year-old left-hander was placed on the 10-day injured list Thursday and is expected to be sidelined until at least September due to arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow.
The Rays said team orthopedic surgeon Dr. Koco Eaton will operate on Snell next Monday. The team anticipates the pitcher will be ready to return in September.
Snell said he’s confident the Rays can remain in playoff contention while he’s out. Tampa Bay has slipped following a 14-4 start.
“With the team we have, I know they’re going to ball out. I’m not worried about them,” said Snell, who became the second Cy Young winner in franchise history last season, when he led the major leagues with 21 wins.
The lefty is 6-7 with a 4.28 ERA in 20 starts this season, including 2-0 with a 1.64 ERA in outings since June 30.
Snell, who signed a $50 million, five-year contract during spring training, said he initially felt discomfort in his arm “three of four starts ago” and became more concerned while playing catch on Tuesday. He had a MRI following a bullpen session Wednesday.
“I was upset,” Snell said of his reaction to learning he would need surgery. “Felt like this whole year has kind of been that way. … Every time I found my groove and felt like I was about to get going, something had to get in the way. Just very frustrating.”
YANKEES: Troy Tulowitzki, a five-time All-Star with the Colorado Rockies who has missed most of the past two seasons with leg injuries, announced his retirement more than three months after he played in his last game for the New York Yankees.
Tulowitzki was NL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2007, when he helped the Rockies reach the World Series for the only time in franchise history. He finished in the top 10 of the NL MVP voting three straight years from 2009-11; in all, he received MVP votes in six seasons.
He was traded to Toronto in the middle of 2015 and hit .254 with 24 homers and 79 RBI the next year, his last full season in the majors. He spent most of 2017 on the disabled list with and ankle injuries, and then missed all of last season with following April 2018 surgery on both heels.
The Yankees signed him in the offseason, and he won the shortstop job in spring training while starter Didi Gregorius opened the season on the injured list following Tommy John surgery. But Tulowitzki lasted just five games before going on the IL himself, straining his left calf on April 3.
Tulowitzki finished with a .290 average, 225 homers and 780 RBI in 13 seasons with Colorado (2006-15), Toronto (2015-17) and the Yankees. He is one of three shortstops in major league history with at least 20 home runs and a .290 average in six seasons; the others are Alex Rodriguez (seven) and Nomar Garciaparra (six).
Texas Longhorns Coach David Pierce announced later Thursday that Tulowitzki will join the coaching staff.
• The Yankees put outfielder Brett Gardner on the 10-day injured list with left knee inflammation.
The move was retroactive to Monday. Gardner has batted .243 with 15 homers and 41 RBI this season. Gardner said he hurt the knee while making a sliding catch on Colorado’s Ryan McMahon in the ninth inning Saturday.
To fill his spot on the roster, the Yankees recalled left-hander Stephen Tarpley from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Gardner is the 23rd Yankees player to go on the IL this year, three more than they put on the disabled list in all of last season.
RANGERS: Outfielder Joey Gallo will miss at least a month after he had surgery to remove part of a bone in his right wrist.
Gallo left Tuesday’s game in Seattle because of soreness in his wrist. After undergoing X-rays and an MRI, the 25-year-old Gallo returned to Texas, where Dr. Thomas DiLiberti performed surgery Thursday to remove a fractured hook of the hamate bone in Gallo’s wrist.
Willie Calhoun was called up from Triple-A Nashville.
Gallo is hitting .252 with 22 home runs and 49 RBI in 70 games.
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