BREAKING: Rays Ace Blake Snell to Undergo Elbow Surgery

The Tampa Bay Rays' bid for an AL Wild Card spot just hit a major snag. Per Josh Tolentino of The Athletic, staff ace and reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell will be forced aside in order to receive arthroscopic surgery to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow.

Snell is likely to miss a month, and perhaps longer; this is the same issue Nathan Eovaldi recently battled, which shaved three months off his season.

Snell isn't putting up nearly the same caliber of season he had last year, but then again, the vast majority of pitchers throughout history couldn't hold a candle to the 1.89 ERA and 0.974 WHIP he posted in his 2018 AL Cy Young campaign. The fact remains that there's no like-for-like replacement for a guy with his level of impact, and Kevin Cash's team will simply have to find a way to make do while he's on the mend.

Fortunately, even the most cautious estimates don't suggest that Snell will be out for the remainder of the season.

Currently one game back of the Oakland A's for the second Wild Card spot in the American League, the Rays can't afford any false moves. With their No. 1 arm now dealing with the injury blues, they're suddenly in for their toughest test of the season.