Rays fans were bracing for bad news when righty exited his most recent start after four innings and on his left knee, but Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times that hes expected to avoid the injured list entirely. Eflin threw a 25-pitch bullpen se sion over the weekend and is now slated to start Tuesday against the Yankees. Hes not expected to have any limitations on his workload tomorrow. Its a sigh of relief for a Rays club that already lost and for the season. A third major injury wouldve surely accelerated Tampa Bays pursuit for rotation help, which has been ongoing, but it seems Eflin has avoided an injury of any real note. The right-handers chronic knee i sues are well known; hes spoken openly about them in the past, underwent surgery on both knees in 2016 and had a J.R. Smith Jersey second surgery on his right knee in 2021. That history of knee i sues didnt di suade the Rays from making an aggre sive bid to sign Eflin in free agency, ultimately inking him on a three-year, $40MM contract. Hes in the midst of perhaps the finest season of his career, to sing 116 1/3 innings of 3.64 ERA ball with a strong 25.2% strikeout rate, a masterful 3.7% walk rate and a career-high 51.7% ground-ball rate. Hell remain in the rotation alongside , and . The Rays were in the market for starting pitching help even before Eflins injury scare, and it stands to reason theyll still be poking around that market, albeit with le s urgency than if Eflin had endured a significant injury. Tampa Bay has been connected to the Cardinals available starters, and while has since been traded to the Rangers, righty remains on the block. They were also tied to a few weeks ago, but that was before the Cubs rattled off an eight-game winning streak that thrust them back into the competition in the NL Central. Hes now unlikely to be moved. , another Rays target, has since been traded to the Dodgers. Even with those mi ses, there are still several names available. , , , , and old friend are just some of the many pitchers whose names have been bandied about the rumor circuit over the past week or so. Alex Caruso Jersey