Griffin

Jax

Jax had only thrown 62 pitches through five, but manager Kevin Cash decided to pull him anyway. His season high was 72 in his last start, a disastrous 6 ER performance against the Tigers. Perhaps that factored into Tampa Bay’s quick hook, but it backfired as reliever Garrett Cleavinger immediately gave up the lead in the sixth. Jax will remain on the streaming radar for his next start, which lines up on the road against the Angels.

Jax ran into a buzzsaw in this one as Detroit came out in attack mode, tagging him for a whopping seven hits, including three home runs. He finished with five strikeouts and only issued one walk, which somewhat salvages the outing from a fantasy standpoint. It was a disappointing effort after allowing two earned runs or fewer in six straight outings since joining Tampa Bay’s rotation back on April 26. He’ll face the Marlins in a road matchup on Sunday to finish out a two-start week.

There was some initial concern that Jax would require a trip to the injured list after being struck by a 107-mph comebacker during last week’s start against the Orioles. However, initial imaging didn’t reveal any fractures and he’s been cleared to take the ball at Tropicana Field on Monday night. It’s a decent spot for streaming purposes in extremely deep mixed leagues since Detroit ranks 27th as a team in slugging percentage against right-handed pitching this season.

Jax appears to have avoided serious injury when he was struck in the lower back by a 107-mph line drive during Tuesday’s start against the Orioles. The 31-year-old appears on track to make his next start against the Tigers on Monday, but that won’t be made official until he completes his usual bullpen session between starts. There should be a defintive update on his status at some point this weekend.

Jax is officially day-to-day after being struck by a 107-mph comebacker in the lower back from Leody Taveras. The positive sign is that he was able to finish out the second inning before exiting presumably out of an abundance of caution. He was charged with three runs — zero earned — and struck out three over his two innings of work. It sounds like he should be able to make his next start against the Tigers on Monday.

Jax settled in nicely after serving up a leadoff homer to Taylor Ward, pounding the strike zone and needing an economical 62 pitches (41 strikes) to complete five frames while generating half of his strikeouts on his changeup. The 31-year-old converted reliever has allowed just three earned runs over 14 innings across five starts since joining Tampa Bay’s rotation back on April 26. He doesn’t offer significant strikeout upside, but he’s been consistent enough to merit consideration in deeper fantasy leagues. He’s in line for a rematch against the Orioles in a road matchup next week.

This was his first time pitching five innings in a game since 2021. Jax has now made four starts since moving to the Rays’ rotation to stretch out as a starter. He pitched four innings in his previous start after lasting less than three in the two starts prior. He wasn’t at his best against Toronto, needing three double plays to erase some traffic. Jax allowed four hits and four free passes and only struck out one. His next start lines up at home against the Orioles.

Jax struck out three and walked one while throwing 59 pitches in this one. The former reliever showed off a six-pitch mix in this one, using five pitches at least 14 percent of the time. He threw plenty of strikes with his sinker and four-seamer and was able to use his changeup for whiffs against both righties and lefties. However, no other pitches really missed many bats, and he had just a 10 percent swinging strike rate. We’ll need to see a little more strikeout upside from Jax if he’s going to be relied on in fantasy leagues. He should be able to push to five innings next week against the Blue Jays, but we’d hold off on starting him for now.

That’s not great news. Matz looked good on Sunday, allowing one run in six innings to lower his ERA to 3.86 and his WHIP to 1.10. Obviously, he did not respond well after the start, so we’ll have to wait and see how long he will be sidelined for. The Rays are in the process of stretching out Griffin Jax and Mason Englert (forearm) as starters, and Joe Boyle (elbow) is on the injured list, so they may have to turn to Joe Rock or Ian Seymour to take at least one start in Matz’s place.

It looks like this is going to be a permanent switch for Jax, leaving him with no fantasy value in the short term while he gets stretched out. Still, the talent is there for him to perhaps reemerge as a contributor once he’s ready to throw six innings at a time. He’s thrown five scoreless innings in his two starts thus far.