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While spring training is a time for hope and excitement for all baseball fans, there are also the inevitable injuries that put a damper on things. The latest would be Rays starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow. The 6-foot-8 right-hander has suffered an injury to his oblique muscle during a bullpen session Monday and is expected to miss up to two months.

The Rays announced Tuesday that Glasnow has a Grade 2 strain and will miss 6-8 weeks. The best case scenario puts him on track to return in late April. More likely, he'll return sometime in May provided there are no setbacks or delays.

"I talked to him this morning," manager Kevin Cash told the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday.  "Typical soreness, bothers him to sneeze, cough, whatever."

Glasnow's injury is a big blow for a Tampa team with significant upside in the rotation (power ranked ninth based on a strong group overshadowed by questions like Glasnow's health), though perhaps underwhelming depth. With Shane McClanahan and Glasnow hitting their full potential, it's a pair of aces. Without Glasnow, Drew Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs and Zach Eflin are the 2-4 starters and then it's an opener with some use of Josh Fleming, Luis Patiño and Yonny Chirinos types. 

Glasnow, 29, returned from Tommy John surgery late last season in time to make just two starts in the regular season and one in the playoffs. In 50 career starts for the Rays, he is 17-9 with a 3.05 ERA (136 ERA+), 1.00 WHIP and 364 strikeouts in 268 1/3 innings. His upside is an All-Star and even winning a Cy Young, but injuries have put a damper on whatever his ceiling may be. His career high workload for a season is 111 2/3 and that happened all the way back in 2018.