Jeffrey Springs, one of Rays' biggest success stories, to undergo Tommy John surgery, per report

The Tampa Bay Rays suffered their first loss of the season Friday, but the bigger loss came Tuesday.

Starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs, one of the Rays' biggest success stories of the past few years, will undergo Tommy John surgery, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The surgery will end Springs' season and likely limit him in 2024 as well.

Springs last pitched Thursday, when he exited a start against the Boston Red Sox in the fourth inning after showing clear discomfort while trying to throw a pitch.

Springs was initially announced to have ulnar neuritis, which is essentially inflammation of the ulnar nerve in his pitching arm. He was placed on the 15-day injured list Tuesday with what the team called a left elbow flexor strain, but the Tommy John news hit a couple of hours later.

It is a ghastly development for the both the Rays and Springs, who was looking like one of the best pitchers in MLB in his first three starts of the season. In 16 innings, he allowed only four hits and one earned run while striking out 24.

That performance was a follow-up to a quiet breakout season last year for the 30-year-old, who was drafted by the Texas Rangers out of Appalachian State in the 30th round of the 2015 MLB Draft, a round that no longer exists, and signed for $1,000. After bouncing around as a below-average reliever with the Rangers and Red Sox, Springs landed with the Rays, who turned him into their latest alchemy project.

Springs posted a 2.46 ERA in 135 1/3 innings while working mostly as a starter last season, with a 1.071 WHIP and 144 strikeouts. That earned him a four-year, $31 million contract extension in January, a payday few players in his previous position could ever imagine. That success story is now on hold.