Left-hander Robbie Ray has declined the opt-out clause in his contract, meaning that he’ll remain with the Giants for both the 2025 and 2026 seasons. ESPN’s Jeff Passan (X link) was the first to report the news. The five-year, $115MM pact Ray signed with the Mariners prior to the 2022 season was slightly backloaded, and thus Ray will earn $25MM in each of the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
It’s not terribly surprising that Ray is taking the proverbial bird in the hand here. He underwent ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, commonly known as Tommy John surgery, and a flexor tendon repair in May of 2023. While recovering from that operation, the Mariners traded him to the Giants.
Ray was able to get back on the mound with San Francisco in 2024, but made seven starts with an unimpressive 4.70 earned run average before spending the month of September on the injured list due to a left hamstring strain.
Pitchers with injury question marks can still get paid but Ray would be hard-pressed to find more than $50MM on the open market. Carlos Rodón had plenty of injury absences in his early career but was able to secure a two-year, $44MM deal from the Giants going into 2022. However, Rodón had just made 24 starts for the White Sox in 2021 with a 2.37 ERA and was going into his age-29 season. Ray, on the other hand, is now 33 years old and has made eight starts over the past two years with a 5.03 ERA.
Taking all that into consideration, Ray’s best financial move was to keep this guarantee. He’ll return to the Giants next year and hopefully get back on track. While it’s probably unrealistic to expect him to get back to his Cy Young winning form from 2021, getting even part of the way back there would be nice. The year that he earned that hardware, he made 32 starts for the Blue Jays with a 2.84 ERA, 32.1% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk rate.
One Giant starter is departing, as Blake Snell has opted out of his deal. Next year’s rotation in San Francisco projects to include Ray, Logan Webb and Kyle Harrison. Perhaps Jordan Hicks will get another shot at starting or maybe he’ll be back in the bullpen. Guys like Landen Roupp, Keaton Winn, Tristan Beck, Hayden Birdsong and others would also be in the mix.
If the club looks to bolster that group, the free agent market will be headlined by guys like Snell, Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and plenty of others. The trade market should feature Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray and more.
Woops!
Well, Ray probably likes SF or the money attached to the contract? Wonder… Land…
Giants have a Ray of hope.
But realistically they are locked in 4th next year. Way behind top three and way above the bottom Rockies.
As easy a decision they can get
Well, he DID pitch in SEVEN games
Captainmike: Well, Kershaw started 7 games this year and actually earned a 5M bonus.
I remember telling Mariners fans, that was a bad contract when they signed him. Jerry Dipsnot got lucky, he found a sucker to take that contract
Dipsnot? So clever.
I think the point is the ~40m saved by the mariners to repurpose. Haniger was never expected to perform
They still keep forcing Haniger into the lineup though.
Seattle has Mitch Haniger for only one more season at $15.5 million while Robbie Ray is owed $50 million over the next two seasons. The Mariners freed up payroll to address the escalating salaries of Julio Rodriguez, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Cal Raleigh, Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo.
Where would Robbie Ray slot in the Seattle rotation?
The difference between $50 million and $15.5 million can be spent on Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Cal Raleigh and others who provide more value than Ray.
These things aren’t exactly hard to google. Since it was more or less a lost year for Desclafani, Ray, and Haniger, the math is basically 28m + 2 years of Ray vs 1 year of Haniger.
The Giants shed Haniger and DeSclafani’s contracts in that deal.
Ray can still pull up the K’s, so maybe there is still a chance for him to be a solid #3 maybe #2
Who puts up more K’s? Ray or Haniger?
Jonny Angel I just think you didn’t get it. I found it pretty funny.
I believe the Ms will ask Mitch to go ahead and sit the season out or play in Tacoma. The money is not a lot and the roster spot is much more important. It is sad he had so much more upside until he got hurt in a few very odd injuries. How many times have you heard about a player taking the foul ball to the nads and it blowing it up? Then as he was rehabbing hurt his core. Mitches playing days are behind him. Seattle could bring him back as a bench coach.
I just choked on my big whopper without onions when I read the most nonsensical comment in recent MLB comments history by you sir. Self mute for all our sakes.
That’s a pretty whopper of an honor. I felt it was a good question but if you want to mute me you are free to do so.
Sir the whopper is on me, my remark was directed at datashark.
Decent chance for Ray to be a #3. He had 4 good starts out of 7, and had a 43/15 K/W in only 30.2 IPs.
Thanks Farhan.
Jay, let it go. he’s gone
Shedding Sam Dyson, Mark Melancon, and Jorge Soler were also shrewd.
Afraid nobody will pay him more than 25 mil? I’m shocked.
I heard a six-year-old was willing to donate his uniform pants to Ray so he could get pants that were the appropriate tightness for him……
That’s a large six year old!
Have you seen some of them?!
The shocker here would have been if he opted out of the deal. Why would he walked away from $50mil. The Giants will be lucky if they get anything out of Ray the next 2 years. Just a horrible trade by Zaidi, people talk about how he got Haniger and DeSclafani off the books but it cost the Giants almost $20mil to do that. Now they have to keep Ray on the roster taking up a spot from someone else.
If roster spots are your concern, Zaidi gained one roster spot with that move.
SFG.1
The Giants will be lucky if they get anything out of Ray the next 2 years. Just a horrible trade
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I think he’ll be a solid #4, maybe a #3. His stats were pretty decent for someone coming off the IL.
Except it didn’t. Just make something up for the point of your agenda. It was, quite literally, a financial wash.
Snell leaves. Ray stays.
It’s not what you want.
Man, the stupidity is thick as a brick. Zaidi got rid of 2 players that were done and in return got a Cy young winner. He’s made 8 starts in 2 years due to injury. Is now fully healthy. He had 2 bad starts last year out of 7. How good was Snell after his injuries? 43 ks in 30 innings. All you experts be sure to check back in next October
All you experts be sure to check back in next October
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Spot on with the stats. There is no reason to think he won’t be decent next year.
Ray only has a good pitching year once every 5 years or so. Too much dough for Mr. Inconsistent.
But leads in strikeouts nearly every year. He’s valuable for k’s when healthy
The Giants will gamble on Ray and his tight pants for 2 years. He’ll put ladies in the seats and his floor should be a #3 starter with #1 upside.
It’s an overpay but it isn’t like a Rendon train wreck for the next 2 seasons.
Glad he’s back!
Will this help them sign Snell?
I guess my Javier Baez joke doesn’t work here…
I used to think Robbie Ray had some Max Fried in him, but instead it was Matthew Boyd if Boyd was more like Wade Miley.
Since the trade ( Ray for Haniger + DeSclafani) was made prior to 2024, the Giants took on 72 $ MM and sheded 47$ MM so the net cost is really 25$MM over 3 years and they got a pitcher returning from a TJ whose WHIP was 1.14 (21st best in MLB) in 7 starts (includes 5 earned runs in 2/3 inning on august 14) & drops to 0.81 if you take out that game… which would be the best in MLB in 2024 and that spells D-O-M-I-N-A-N-T!
The net cost for the next 2 years of Robbie Ray is in fact 8.5 $MM per season… a bargain! So please, give credit where credit is due… to Farhan Zaidi!
Robbie Ray pitched 30.2 innings this year.
Among pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched, Ray finished 124th with a WHIP of 1.14:
fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?pos=all&st…