Drew Rasmussen was the starting pitcher in Sunday’s 7-5 Rays win over the Twins, but Rasmussen only tossed two innings before turning things over to Joe Boyle, who was called up from Triple-A before the game. Boyle allowed just one unearned run over five innings of work, and he has yet to allow any earned runs over 10 MLB innings this season.
The quick hook for Rasmussen wasn’t for any health reason, but rather the debut of a strategy the Rays will be deploying over the next few weeks. As Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times explains, Rasmussen has now thrown 89 1/3 innings this season, putting him on track to far exceed the 150-inning limit the Rays set for the right-hander since he missed most of the 2023-24 seasons due to an internal brace surgery. Since he also underwent two Tommy John surgeries before even beginning his pro career, the Rays naturally wanted to be careful in managing Rasmussen’s workload in the aftermath of yet another major elbow procedure.
Since Rasmussen has delivered a 2.82 ERA this year, Tampa wants to make sure the right-hander will still have something for later in the season and into October, as the 49-41 Rays are in position for a playoff berth. The team’s answer is to use Rasmussen as essentially an opener over his next few starts, with Boyle acting as a piggyback pitcher.
Rasmussen is happy with the plan, as “it lets us get the Joe Boyle experience, which is electric. And then also allows me to just stay on routine as well as limit some of the innings for this year. When they brought the idea to me a couple days ago, it was something I’m on board with, obviously, because I think they are always looking out for my best interest.”
Tampa Bay’s rotation of Rasmussen, Ryan Pepiot, Shane Baz, Taj Bradley, and Zack Littell has been both effective and incredibly durable. The quintet have combined to start all but one of the Rays’ games this season — the lone exception was Boyle’s only other MLB outing of 2025, a spot start on April 13. As a result, Boyle has had trouble working his way onto the roster, despite a 1.85 ERA, 32.9% strikeout rate, and 10.6% walk rate over 73 Triple-A frames.
Acquired from the A’s as part of the Jeffrey Springs trade back in December, Boyle appears to be the latest pitcher to find a new level of performance after joining the Rays organization. Boyle always had a ton of velocity and racked up plenty of strikeouts, but it seems like he has now lessened the control problems that plagued his time in the Athletics farm system. His emergence gives Tampa Bay yet another pitching weapon to bedevil opposing batters, and it will be interesting to see how Boyle is deployed beyond the end of this piggybacking experiment with Rasmussen.
Sunday’s game wasn’t without its concerns for the Rays, as Brandon Lowe left in the bottom of the third inning due to soreness in his left side. Lowe downplayed the seriousness of the situation when speaking with Topkin and other reporters after the game, saying that the removal “feels very precautionary, as it’s a little sore. Let’s just get off of it for a little bit and let it rest up.”
Lowe missed over a month of the 2024 season dealing with a right oblique strain, so he is no stranger to side injuries. Even if this latest issue costs Lowe a game or two, that is vastly preferable to another long-term absence, as injuries have plagued Lowe over the last three seasons. Lowe has stayed healthy and productive in 2025, and his .272/.324/.487 slash line and 19 home runs in 343 plate appearances earned the second baseman a spot on his second All-Star team.
In other infield news, Ha-Seong Kim made his Rays debut on July 3, but that remains his lone appearance due to a cramp in his right calf. It doesn’t seem like the injury is too serious, as Kim took part in most normal baseball activities prior to Sunday’s game. Kim is only just back in action after his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery cost him over half of the 2025 campaign, so it makes sense that the Rays don’t want to push him too soon.
