Rays, Shane McClanahan Avoid Arbitration

The Rays announced that they’ve signed left-hander Shane McClanahan, who’d been arbitration-eligible, to a contract for the 2026 season. The new deal avoids an arbitration hearing for the two parties. He’ll be paid $3.6MM, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.

McClanahan, 28, hasn’t pitched in either of the past two seasons due to injury but was one of the game’s brightest young arms prior to undergoing Tommy John surgery in Aug. 2023. The former first-rounder carries a career 3.02 ERA, 28% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate in 404 2/3 innings. His 2022 campaign, in particular, was dominant. McClanahan was on a Cy Young trajectory, with a 2.20 ERA and a strikeout rate north of 30% through 24 starts before missing four starts due to a shoulder impingement. He returned to allow 11 runs in his final 19 frames, bumping his ERA up to 2.54. That injury layoff and rocky finish caused him to “fall” to sixth in the voting. (Justin Verlander won that year’s AL Cy Young Award.)

McClanahan had hoped to return from that 2023 UCL procedure this past season, but a nerve injury in his pitching arm halted his minor league rehab assignment over the summer. There was originally hope that he could still make it back to the mound late in the season, but in August it was announced that he’d require season-ending surgery.

Players who miss an entire season due to injury typically just repeat the prior season’s salary in arbitration. The Rays bought out the first of McClanahan’s four arbitration seasons (he’s a Super Two player) on a two-year, $7.2MM deal that paid him $3.6MM annually. Accordingly, MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $3.6MM salary for the upcoming 2026 season.

The obvious hope will be that following a two-year layoff, Tampa Bay will have its top starter back in the rotation for Opening Day 2026. The Rays still haven’t given a firm timetable for the southpaw’s recovery, though they also haven’t indicated that Opening Day is in jeopardy, either. McClanahan will surely be on some kind of limited workload in 2026 even if he’s able to make it back to the mound. The Rays control the left-hander through the 2027 season.