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Report: Alex Cobb has a partial tear in elbow ligament, could need surgery

Mike Oz
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

The Tampa Bay Rays were expecting big things out of ace-in-waiting Alex Cobb this season, but Cobb hasn't pitched yet because of a forearm injury. He suffered a setback Monday and was shut down.

Now the news has gotten worse — worse in a could-need-surgery kind of way.

Marc Topkin, the Rays beat writer for the Tampa Bay Times, is reporting that Cobb has a partially torn ligament in his elbow. That, of course, is a big deal. Topkin couches his reporting by calling it "informed speculation," but Topkin covers the Rays beat well, so we're inclined to believe him.

He writes:

Informed speculation is that a new more detailed MRI revealed a partial tear in his elbow ligament, which in the short term puts him on a program of rest and treatment and longer-term could lead to surgery.

Cobb could undergo various treatments, such as PRP therapy, where platelet rich plasma is used to speed healing, and try to pitch through it. If that doesn't work and rest doesn't help, he may have no choice but to undergo surgery, which would sideline him for the rest of this season and if a Tommy John procedure was required he could miss a large portion of 2016 as well.

Tomkin was later able to confirm his "informed speculation."

Cobb visited with Dr. James Andrews, and received a PRP injection to help with his recovery. The club has not yet confirmed the news. President of baseball operations Matt Silverman said Cobb had "some tests performed," but added that the team was still in "wait-and-see mode."

Cobb had a 2.87 ERA in 27 starts in 2014 and a 2.76 ERA in 22 starts in 2013. In his age-27 season, some were predicting a full-on ace breakout. That conversation is on hold now. We obviously don't know all the specifics about Cobb's elbow, and as much as elbow surgery has become common for pitchers, individual cases can vary. We do know this: Having a partially torn elbow ligament puts both the player and the team in a tricky situation.

Pitchers can try to rehab a partial tear and it works in some cases. Others? Not so much. Masahiro Tanaka is trying to pitch through a partially torn UCL and the results have been mixed. Matt Harvey tried to rehab a partial tear before he and the Mets opted for Tommy John surgery. Rehabbing the injury pushes back an eventual surgery timetable. And it adds a layer of is-today-the-day-my-elbow-snaps doubt every time a pitcher throws. But it can be successful in the short term.

In Cobb's case specifically, if he were to spend two more months trying to rehab the injury and then need Tommy John surgery anyway, the Rays will have effectively lost him until 2017. That's the worst-case scenario.

In the meantime, the Rays can rest somewhat easily knowing that their non-Cobb starters have the fourth-best ERA in baseball so far this season. A big part of that is the emergence of Chris Archer, who has a 1.63 ERA in six starts and the fifth-best strikeout percentage in MLB.

That helps the Cobb situation, because the Rays don't need him back as their ace right away. But they're a much better team with a healthy Alex Cobb than without.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!