Griffin Jax (elbow) won’t require surgery

Jax was abysmal in his return from an elbow injury. The Mets jumped on him for three runs right away in the top of the first inning and then added three more in the third. In total, nine of the 14 balls the Mets put in play off Jax were hard-hit as their left-handed heavy lineup consistently teed off on his changeup. We expected him to be rusty in his first start back, but this was a catastrophe. Also, it’s important to note that his velocity was down about one mile per hour across the board. He’ll have a chance to right the ship next Wednesday on the road against the Braves.

Jax threw 42 pitches in his last rehab start with was also on August 23rd. There had been a discussion that he might throw one more minor league start, but that never came to fruition, so we would expect him to be under 65 pitches in this outing on Wednesday. He struggled to command his changeup and sweeper in that rehab outing, so we’ll see how sharp he looks against the Mets. We would leave him on the bench in fantasy leagues.

Jax struck out two and walked two while throwing 42 pitches in the outing. He threw 60 percent of his pitches for strikes and posted a 17 percent swinging strike rate and 31 percent CSW. His sinker has 95.1 mph, and his four-seamer was 95.4 mph, so there didn’t seem to be much concern with his velocity. He did struggle to command his changeup and sweeper, so the Rays may opt to give him one more rehab start and try to get him closer to 60 pitches before activating him.

This phenomenal and unexpectedly good news for Jax who went on the injured list for elbow discomfort nine days ago and then sought a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister regarding it. He deemed surgery wouldn’t be necessary and now Jax is back on a mound just one week later. Kevin Cash told Topkin that Jax “looked good” and was able to use all of his pitches. The plan as of now is for him to make a rehab start on Sunday, meaning he could be back with the Rays as soon as next week.

The 31-year-old hurler was scratched from his scheduled start on Saturday due to the elbow issue and he’ll now be shelved for at least a couple of weeks. Michael Grove was recalled from Triple-A Durham to take his spot on the Rays’ active roster.

Ryan Vilade started the game with an error at second base and Jax later made an error of his own on a tapper back to the mound in the White Sox’s two-run first inning. The lone earned run was produced by an Andrew Benintendi 378-foot home run. It’s the fourth time in five starts that Jax has allowed exactly one earned run. He’ll be a fine option in mixed leagues with a road start in Seattle coming up.

Jax did walk three, but this stuff should be considered a hard-luck loss. The right-hander has now allowed no more than an earned run in three of his last four starts, but unfortunately has a seven-run outing in the middle of those efforts that obscures how well the former reliever has pitched as of late, and really the majority of 2026. The 31-year-old now has a 92/30 K/B over his 86 2/3 innings, and he’ll be back on the bump with a chance to improve those efforts against the White Sox over the weekend.

Jax struck out five and only issued one walk. The lone run against him came on an RBI ground out by George Springer in the opening frame. It was a much-needed bounce-back effort after getting torched for seven runs over five innings by the Red Sox his last time out. The 31-year-old has made a flawless transition to Tampa Bay’s rotation, emerging as one of the better in-season waiver wire pickups for fantasy managers with a 3.89 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 82/27 K/BB ratio across 81 innings of work. He has a two-start week up next with matchups against the Rangers and White Sox.

Nothing under the hood looked too bad for Jax, who gave up his one home run just inside the Pesky Pole to Masataka Yoshida. The Red Sox chained a HBP-single-walk-single start to the sixth inning together and reliever Chris Roycroft allowed two inherited runners to score to balloon Jax’s ERA. Jax had a 36 percent whiff rate and allowed just seven hard-hit balls -- four against his four-seamer -- in 85 pitches. He’ll look to bounce back next time out against the Blue Jays.

The Rays are expected to go with Mason Englert, either as a traditional starter or behind an opener for the second game of Friday’s doubleheader. Ian Seymour will then get the ball on Saturday and Shane McClanahan will start in Friday’s series finale.