The Rays opened the offseason with the fairly surprising decision to decline their option on closer Pete Fairbanks, but they’re still intent on adding to the roster. Ken Rosenthal, Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic report that Tampa Bay is hoping to add a starter who can eat innings to their rotation — ideally on a short-term deal.
It’s not a riveting target for Rays fans to sink their teeth into, but it’s a sensible enough pursuit. The Rays have a solid rotation on paper, with Shane McClanahan expected to return from a two-year injury absence to join Drew Rasmussen, Ryan Pepiot and Shane Baz on the staff. Candidates for the fifth spot currently include Ian Seymour, Joe Rock, Joe Boyle and prospect Yoniel Curet. There’s plenty of talent in that group. Both McClanahan and Rasmussen have pitched like top-of-the-rotation starters at their best.
That said, McClanahan will surely be on an innings limit. He missed all of 2024 due to Tommy John surgery and was targeting a summer return before a nerve issue in his left arm prompted a second surgery that ended his season. He pitched just 3 1/3 innings on his rehab assignment before being shut down by that injury, and those are the only innings he’s pitched since the end of the 2023 campaign.
Rasmussen just made his own return from a UCL procedure and tossed a career-high 150 innings in 2025. Baz, similarly, missed all of 2023 due to Tommy John surgery and has slowly built his innings back up, topping out with a career-high 166 1/3 in 2025. Pepiot hasn’t had any major arm injuries recently, but this past season’s 167 2/3 frames was a career-high for the righty, who did spend ample time on the injured list earlier in his professional career.
It’d be a surprise to see the Rays make a significant expenditure, as they did three winters ago when signing Zach Eflin to a three-year, $40MM contract (which he was traded halfway through). But the market figures to include plenty of stable veteran arms who could sign for one year or possibly two at a modest annual value. Names like Michael Lorenzen, Jose Quintana, Chris Paddack, Patrick Corbin, Tyler Anderson and Miles Mikolas all made at least 24 starts and are likely in line for one-year commitments. The Rays could roll the dice on a younger upside play like Walker Buehler or Dustin May, as well, but both are coming off dismal seasons.
The Rays have new ownership, as longtime owner Stuart Sternberg sold to a group fronted by Jacksonville-based real estate developer Patrick Zalupski. It’s still not clear whether that change will bring about an uptick in payroll, though the Rays played their home games at a minor league park in 2025 and accordingly drew the second-fewest fans in the American League (trailing only the A’s, who also played their home games in a Triple-A park).
Tampa Bay’s payroll, perennially near the bottom of the league, is already on pace to be higher than it was in 2025. Per RosterResource, the Rays project for about $95.5MM in 2026 commitments, including arbitration-eligible players. That’s up from last year’s Opening Day mark of $78MM and close to 2024’s franchise-record $99MM Opening Day payroll. A handful of non-tenders could bring that number down, and it’s plausible that the Rays will shop second baseman Brandon Lowe, who’s owed $11.5MM next year. That’d certainly free them up to add some innings to the rotation.
Dustin May’s season wasnt good but dismal is a bit of a stretch. I’d be in on him if I were TB. Cheap upside roll.
Baltimore, you have big dice! He was just horrendous last year and despite a good arsenal, is a major project, The Rays have been doing this for years so if he’s cheap, why not? If he performs, he gets flipped.
Im kinda suprised the Dodgers got a haul of good prospect for Dustin May from the Red Sox
Is Skenes available?
Who wans to pich in an arena football stadium, come and get it.
Cal Quantrill.
Before that, it was the world’s worst hockey stadium.
As an O’s guys, watching Bradish and Wells come back with virtually no rust definitely lends some hop to McClanahan to come back and be very effective. I just wish the Rays would open up the checkbook a bit more. What were they? 88 Million or so this past year? It hurts my head to wonder what they could do with some more financial support to go along with what has been for a long time an extremely savvy scouting department.
McClanahan isn’t coming back from Tommy John this year (that was last year), but from nerve surgery in his triceps. I worry about McClanahan’s future because the surgeons indicated that it is an uncommon surgery and they weren’t certain how effective it would be nor could guarantee that it would solve the issue. As a Rays fan, I’m hoping for the best, but wouldn’t be surprised if another setback occurs as he ramps up baseball activity in the spring.
I’m such a pessimist when it comes to these types of situations. I don’t have any hope that Shane can come back and return to pre-surgery form. I think he’ll always be bugged and nagged by it and I don’t think he’ll be the Ace that he once was. Perhaps he can be more of an opener or spot starter. #4-5 in the rotation and likely on an innings limit this year to test and see how his pitching looks. I wish the best for him but very much cautious optimism at best.
Welcome to Tampa, Walker Buehler
May is right up the Rays ally. Eflin and Martin Perez also seem like guys they can maximize and flip at the deadline next season
Keller, Bart/Endy for Brandon Lowe and Uceta?
Rays make that trade every day of the week.
We don’t talk about Wander. . .
Gonsolin is very solid when healthy. I see May as a good to great bullpen to gain his confidence back.
I can see the Rays making a run at Joe Ryan. Josh Lowe or another PTBNL (Taylor Walls) would make a nice pick up for the Twins. I do believe the Rays regretted trading Ryan within 30 days (or less) and this might be a good course correction.
ROFL… As a Rays fan, I would absolutely love to swap J.Lowe for J.Ryan. The only problem is that Ryan has 5-10 times the trade value that Lowe has. Lowe has been bad two years in a row. Maybe he has been dealing with injuries and he’ll bounce back next year, but no one is trading someone like Ryan for Lowe straight up (with or without Walls).
Hay,I can dream can’t I? Maybe we’d throw in a basket of cuban sandwiches…
Rays are always dumpster diving. Don’t want to pay anyone.
The M’s need LH pitching. How’s about a trade of:
SS JP Crawford and RHP Logan Evans
for LHRP Garrett Cleavinger and LHRP Joe Buck.
Crawford is an All-Star SS which the Rays need. Logan Evans got a couple starts with the M’s in 2025 and did well.
I don’t like Evans as a SP but I would make that trade every day of the week for the Rays.
Evans is probably the M’s number 7 starter right now. He has plenty of competition coming up behind him. On a team with less SP competition he could do well. The M’s were really hurt in the playoffs by their lack of relief pitching depth. They have to fix that. They also have depth at SS to replace Crawford. So, I think it is more than fair for both sides.
“Similarly” has to START the sentence, not come in the middle, between commas. And there should not be a comma before “as well.”