Rays Place Steven Matz On IL With Elbow Inflammation
The Rays announced that left-hander Steven Matz has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 4th, with left elbow inflammation. Right-hander Chase Solesky has been selected to take his place on the active roster. The 40-man roster had a vacancy due to righty Yoendrys Gómez being designated for assignment a few days ago, so Solesky can take that vacated spot without a corresponding move.
Matz’s status is unclear. He has been having a good season so far, with a 3.86 earned run average through seven starts. He last took the ball on Sunday and pitched six innings of one-run ball against the Giants. Apparently, something has popped up between that start and today. The severity isn’t publicly known but it’s enough that the Rays are going to put him on the shelf for at least a couple of weeks.
The Tampa rotation has been good this year and has been a key part of their early-season success. The Rays are 22-12 and have gotten a 3.16 ERA from their starters. That includes some openers and is therefore skewed a bit but it’s third-best ERA in the majors, behind only the Yankees and Dodgers.
Despite the good results, there are some concerns. Ryan Pepiot is going to miss the whole season due to hip surgery. Joe Boyle is on the IL with an elbow strain. Even in the healthy rotation, there are questions. Shane McClanahan missed the entire 2024 and 2025 seasons and may face load management questions at some point. Drew Rasmussen has plenty of injuries on his track record. Nick Martinez has a 1.71 ERA but is a 35-year-old swingman who has often been pushed to the bullpen in recent years. Jesse Scholtens is a pretty inexperienced guy who was just claimed off waivers last year.
Top prospect Brody Hopkins is in Triple-A but probably isn’t going to be called up anytime soon because he has a massive 20.2% walk rate so far this year. The depth is enough of a concern that the club is planning to stretch out both Griffin Jax and Mason Englert.
The Rays will have to juggle things for at least a couple of weeks or perhaps longer, depending on the timeline with Matz. Their next off-day isn’t until next Thursday. Martinez started last night. Rasmussen and McClanahan are scheduled for tonight and tomorrow, respectively. Thursday could be a Jax/Scholtens combo, which is what the Rays have done the past two times through the rotation. That would leave Friday open for a bullpen game or a spot start, before going back to Martinez on Saturday.
Solesky, 28, gets called up for now. This is his first time on a major league roster. A 21st-round pick of the White Sox from 2019, he has never really been on the radar of prospect evaluators. He was in the Nationals’ system last year and had a 5.17 ERA in Triple-A. He signed a minor league deal with the Rays in the offseason and has a 6.57 ERA in Triple-A so far this year.
Most likely, he is just on the roster temporarily to absorb some innings, if needed. He has been pitching as a starter and went 5 1/3 innings on Thursday. The results haven’t been good but he could take on some mop-up work and spare the rest of the bullpen, if the situation calls for it. Even if it ultimately proves to be a brief stint in the show, it’s likely a thrill for a guy who has been grinding for a while and turns 29 in a few months.
Photo courtesy of Pablo Robles, Imagn Images
Rays Building Up Mason Englert, Griffin Jax As Rotation Options
The Rays have had an excellent first six weeks. Last night’s series-opening win over the Blue Jays was their fourth in a row and 10th in their last 11. They’re up to a 22-12 record that has them behind only the Yankees in the American League.
Tampa Bay’s rotation has played a key role in their success. Rays starters have a 3.16 earned run average that ranks third in MLB behind the Yankees’ and Dodgers’ rotations. Each of Drew Rasmussen, Shane McClanahan and offseason signees Nick Martinez and Steven Matz have been good to excellent.
The Rays ideally would have had Ryan Pepiot to complete their starting five. He’s instead going to lose the entire season to a hip injury that required surgery. That leaves the fifth spot up for grabs, and the Rays are building up a pair of relievers as rotation candidates.
Griffin Jax has opened his two most recent appearances. They weren’t true “starts,” as he was pulled by design in the third inning of each. Jax, who told MLB.com’s Adam Berry in late April that he and the team were discussing a potential rotation move, built up to 45 pitches across 2 2/3 frames on Saturday against the Giants. It was his highest pitch count in an appearance since 2022. In each of the last two outings, Jax has mixed in a cutter against left-handed batters. He’d tinkered with that pitch at the end of the 2025 season but hadn’t used it this year until he started to build up.
It’s not an entirely unfamiliar role. Jax was a starter throughout his minor league career and started 14 of 18 appearances as a rookie for the Twins in 2021. He struggled to a 6.37 ERA that season and moved fully to the bullpen in year two. Jax’s strikeout and ground-ball rates skyrocketed in shorter stints. He emerged as a high-leverage reliever whom the Twins flipped to Tampa Bay for former top pitching prospect Taj Bradley last summer.
Jax isn’t the only Rays pitcher building into a potential starting role. Mason Englert, who has come out of the bullpen for all but three of his 81 MLB appearances, is doing the same (link via Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times). Englert is currently on the 15-day injured list after feeling seemingly minor forearm soreness in mid-April. The Rays are sending him to Triple-A Durham on a rehab assignment this week and will use that time to build him up as a starter.
The Rays acquired Englert from the Tigers over the 2024-25 offseason. He hasn’t started regularly since he was in Double-A. That’s partially due to his status as a Rule 5 pick, as the Tigers needed to keep him on the MLB roster for his entire rookie season (2023) to secure his long-term rights. Englert had barely pitched above A-ball at the time, and it’s easier for teams to shield Rule 5 picks as low-leverage bullpen arms than it is to keep developing them as starters at the MLB level.
Englert has middling career numbers but is coming off a solid year in which he threw 44 2/3 innings of 3.83 ERA ball with slightly better than average strikeout and walk rates. He has a five-pitch mix headlined by a changeup that he’ll throw to batters of either handedness. Englert had relatively neutral platoon splits last season. He has very little experience turning a lineup over multiple times, but he has a deep enough arsenal that he should be able to compete with left-handed hitters.
Pitchers can spend up to 30 days on a rehab assignment. Englert also still has a minor league option if the Rays wanted to continue building him in Triple-A beyond that. He made a spot start earlier this year and threw 65 pitches, though, so it might only take a couple minor league starts before the Rays feel comfortable letting him throw at least 80-90 pitches in an MLB game.
None of that is to say that either Jax or Englert are guaranteed to hold rotation roles. The Rays have long valued flexibility on the pitching staff. They could use either pitcher as openers and/or as tandem starters or decide they’re better fits as 2-3 inning arms out of the bullpen. Jesse Scholtens and Joe Boyle (rehabbing from an elbow strain) have more starting experience at the MLB level. Tampa Bay has had some success with mid-career reliever to starter moves, however. Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs and Zack Littell were all reasonably well established middle relievers who built up as successful starters during previous seasons.
AL East Notes: Springer, Slaten, Jax, Lux
Blue Jays designated hitter George Springer was forced out of Saturday’s game against the Twins after getting hit by a pitch on his left big toe. It’s the same digit Springer fractured in early April on a foul ball. Yesterday’s matchup in Minnesota was Springer’s fourth game back in the lineup.
Postgame X-rays did not reveal an additional fracture for Springer, per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com, which is a bit of positive news for an injury-riddled roster. “It’s not any worse than it was,” manager John Schneider told reporters. The skipper added that the 36-year-old Springer was likely getting Sunday’s game off anyway. Assuming that remains the plan, his next chance to play will be Monday in Tampa Bay.
Springer picked up four hits in his first three games since returning. He pushed his batting average above .200 for the first time all year. Toronto’s extensive health issues have skewed toward the pitching side, but the club is also missing a handful of key bats. Catcher Alejandro Kirk broke his thumb in early April. Outfielder Addison Barger is out with two injured ankles. Nathan Lukes hit the IL last week with a strained hamstring.
Here are a handful of additional items from around the division…
- Red Sox right-hander Justin Slaten will begin a rehab assignment on Sunday, relays Christopher Smith of MassLive.com, among others. The reliever has been sidelined for nearly a month with an oblique injury. Slaten posted four scoreless appearances to begin the season before the oblique issue popped up. He picked up two holds as one of the late-inning options ahead of closer Aroldis Chapman. With Slaten’s pending return, Boston could be less inclined to add veteran Tommy Kahnle to the roster, if the decision arises. Kahnle triggered his upward mobility clause on Friday.
- Rays right-hander Griffin Jax is stretching out as a starter. He tossed a season-high 2 2/3 innings on Saturday against the Giants. Jax and four relievers held San Francisco to just a run in the 5-1 victory. “This is an organization that’s had some success doing this in the past with Drew obviously, Littell recently, and even Jeffrey Springs. … So I felt this was the right place to do this because of the success this team has had,” Jax told reporters, including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. After poor performance cost him a high-leverage role in the bullpen, Jax has now delivered five scoreless frames as a starter. He built up to 45 pitches yesterday.
- Rays infielder Gavin Lux is still experiencing stiffness in his left ankle, relays Topkin. The veteran picked up the injury in early April while rehabbing a shoulder issue. The ankle kept him out of the Triple-A lineup for a couple of weeks. He returned on April 24. Tampa Bay acquired Lux as part of a three-team trade with the Reds and Angels. The extent of his time in a Rays uniform has been limited to seven Spring Training games so far.
Photo courtesy of Nick Turchiaro, Imagn Images
Rays Designate Yoendrys Gomez, Activate Garrett Cleavinger
The Rays have designated right-hander Yoendrys Gomez for assignment, the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin writes. The move opens up a space on the 40-man roster to be used at a later date, and also creates 26-man roster space for Garrett Cleavinger‘s activation from the 15-day injured list.
Gomez is out of minor league options, and the Rays had to DFA the righty and expose him to waivers before they could potentially send him down to Triple-A via an outright assignment. Because Gomez has previously been outrighted in his career, however, he has the ability to reject any other outrights and become a free agent, so it is possible today’s move could mark the end of his time in a Tampa uniform.
Tampa Bay just acquired Gomez from the White Sox last November, as Gomez and Steven Wilson were brought into the fold in exchange for Everson Pereira and Tanner Murray. The trade hasn’t helped the Rays much to date, as Wilson is on the 60-day IL due to back problems and Gomez posted a 6.23 ERA over 17 1/3 relief innings.
Gomez’s 15.9% strikeout rate isn’t much higher than his 12.2% walk rate, and control has been an issue for the right-hander throughout his time in the minors and majors. Once a notable pitching prospect in the Yankees’ farm system, Gomez hasn’t yet turned that promise into results at the MLB level, as he has a 5.11 ERA over 93 1/3 innings with the Rays, White Sox, Dodgers, and Yankees over parts of the last four seasons.
Another team might have interest in Gomez’s ability to work as a multi-inning reliever, or could still see him as a late breakout candidate. This could mean Gomez is claimed off waivers, or Gomez could test the market directly by opting for free agency.
Cleavinger had an ugly 7.71 ERA over his first 2 1/3 innings and three games of the 2026 campaign, but the southpaw has been a reliable member of Tampa’s bullpen since the 2022 season. Cleavinger will now step back into his former role as the top left-handed option in the Rays’ bullpen, with the struggling Ian Seymour still in the mix as the other lefty.
Ryan Pepiot To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery
Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot will undergo hip surgery and miss the rest of the season, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Pepiot is already on the 60-day injured list and will stay there for the rest of the campaign.
It’s obviously an unfortunate blow for Pepiot and the Rays. The right-hander was healthy in spring training but some inflammation in his right hip sent him to the 15-day IL to start the season. It initially appeared as though that would be a minimal IL stint. As of April 4th, Pepiot had thrown a bullpen session and was in line to rejoin the Rays a little over a week later.
The tides shifted a couple of weeks ago. On April 14th, around the time Pepiot was supposed to be activated, the Rays instead transferred him to the 60-day injured list when they signed Michael Grove. Few details were available at that time but that at least signalled that Pepiot wasn’t going to return before late May. This latest update is even more ominous than that, with Pepiot now set to go under the knife and miss the whole season.
Acquired from the Dodgers as part of the Tyler Glasnow trade in December of 2023, Pepiot was largely a mainstay of the Tampa rotation in the past two seasons. He made 26 starts in 2024 and 31 last year. Between the two seasons, he gave the Rays 297 2/3 innings with a 3.75 earned run average, 25.4% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate.
So far, the Rays have done well this year, despite getting no contributions from Pepiot. They are 18-12 and in second place in the American League East. The rotation has been a key part of that, as the club’s starters have a combined 3.45 ERA, fifth-best in the majors.
Still, it’s less than ideal that Pepiot won’t be coming back to join the group at any point. They traded away Taj Bradley at last year’s deadline and then Shane Baz in the offseason, thinning out the rotation depth. This year, they’ve gotten multiple starts from Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen, Steven Matz, Nick Martinez and Joe Boyle. The Rays put Boyle on the IL a few weeks ago due to a right elbow strain. Jesse Scholtens has effectively taken his place in the rotation, largely working behind an opener.
It’s not a sturdy group on the whole. McClanahan is pitching well but it’s fair to wonder if he’ll hit some kind of wall since he missed the previous two seasons. Rasmussen has a spotty health history with multiple surgeries on his chart. Martinez and Matz are mid-30s guys who were in swing roles as of last year. Scholtens was a waiver claim towards the end of last season.
At some point, the Rays will have to turn to other arms in the system, with Pepiot no longer part of the calculus. Joe Rock is on the 40-man roster and currently on optional assignment but he’s walking everyone in Triple-A. Prospect Brody Hopkins is in Triple-A but he only has six starts at that level and is also showing significant control issues. Yoendrys Gómez is working as a long reliever in the big leagues but he has a 6.23 ERA and is out of options.
For now, the Rays will do their best to keep making it work, though any further injuries could really hurt them. If they manage to stay in contention until the deadline, they will presumably look for reinforcements.
Turning back to Pepiot, he got his service clock just over three years in 2025, therefore qualifying for arbitration for the first time for 2026. He is making $3.025MM this season and can be controlled via arbitration through 2028. When arb-eligible players miss an entire season, they usually end up making the same salary in the following campaign. The Rays surely aren’t happy to be losing Pepiot but the one benefit for them is that they should be able to have him back in 2027 without giving him a raise.
Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images
AL East Injury Notes: Stanton, Rodón, Gray, Melton
Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton exited yesterday’s game against the Astros in the sixth inning with right calf tightness. Manager Aaron Boone downplayed the seriousness of this issue, telling Chandler Rome of The Athletic it was “too early” for him to be concerned. “Hopefully we got ahead of anything serious, but we’ll just see where he’s at tomorrow,” said Boone. Stanton is on the bench for today’s game, and no injury list move is pending as of now.
The 36-year-old missed the first half of last season with injuries to both his elbows. Dating back to the 2021 season, he has missed roughly one third of his team’s games, mostly due to lower body injuries. Even so, he remains a crucial part of the lineup. In last year’s half-season, Stanton hit 24 home runs and posted a .321 isolated slugging percentage, his highest mark since coming to New York in 2018. He is not quite at that level so far in 2026, though the team would obviously prefer him healthy and in the lineup. If he eventually misses time this year, that could result in DH at bats for role players like Paul Goldschmidt and Amed Rosario, neither of whom is an inspiring option in a larger role.
A few more injury notes out of the AL East:
- On the pitching side in New York, left-hander Carlos Rodón made his first rehab start yesterday for the Yankees’ High-A affiliate. According to Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru of MLB.com, the club anticipates he’ll need three rehab starts before rejoining the rotation. Assuming he stays on track, that could put him in line to start at the end of the May 8-10 series against the Brewers, or possibly against Baltimore from May 11-13. New York’s rotation has been exceptional to start the year, posting league-best marks in ERA (2.61) and K-BB rate (19.7%). Luis Gil has been the only weak spot, so he’s the likeliest candidate for a demotion when Rodón makes his return.
- Injured Red Sox starter Sonny Gray is traveling with the team and set to throw a bullpen session on Monday, per manager Alex Cora (link via Chris Cotillo of MassLive). That implies the right-hander, who was placed on the 15-day IL on Monday, will not require a rehab assignment and could return with a minimal absence. That would be welcome news for Boston, as their rotation has struggled to a 4.61 ERA through their first 26 games. Gray isn’t off to a great start himself, but he was a capable mid-rotation arm from 2023-25, so the club is unbothered by the results in a small sample size. His eventual return may spell a demotion for Payton Tolle, who struck out 11 hitters in six innings in his season debut on Thursday.
- Rays outfield prospect Jacob Melton has a Grade 2 left ankle sprain and is out of game action for 4-6 weeks, according to Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times. Melton, who was acquired in a three-team trade in December, currently ranks as the club’s third-best prospect according to MLB.com. He is likely to see time in the Majors this year. The starting outfielders – Chandler Simpson, Jake Fraley, and Cedric Mullins – all have plus range or arm strength, but they are also below-average hitters. Melton’s scouting report mentions room for improvement on his hit tool, though he flashed plus power at Triple-A in 2024-25 and is a solid defender.
Photo courtesy of Maria Lysaker, Imagn Images
Mariners Trade Casey Legumina To Rays
2:08pm: The teams have announced the swap. Tampa Bay opened a spot on the 40-man roster by transferring Uceta from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL.
12:55pm: The Rays are going to acquire right-hander Casey Legumina from the Mariners, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Mariners, who designated Legumina for assignment last week, will receive minor leaguer Ty Cummings in return, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Tampa has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to make the deal official. Legumina is also out of options and will need an active roster spot when he reports to the team.
Legumina, 29 in June, is in his fourth major league season. He got limited looks with the Reds in 2023 and 2024. He was designated for assignment before the 2025 season and flipped to the Mariners. Seattle gave him a decent amount of time in the big leagues last year but he didn’t do much with the opportunity. He tossed 49 2/3 innings, allowing 5.62 earned runs per nine. His 25.1% strikeout rate was pretty good but he also gave out walks at a high clip of 11.4%.
As he struggled to produce decent results, the Mariners optioned him to the minors a few times. That burned his final option and left him out of options here in 2026. He held his roster spot to begin the year but couldn’t turn a corner. In 11 2/3 innings, his 4.63 ERA was an improvement compared to last year but with less impressive underlying numbers. He showed better control by only walking 5.7% of opponents but also saw his strikeout rate drop to 17%.
Maintaining that ERA was going to be tough, as a big factor is that he hasn’t allowed a home run yet. Also, his velocity is noticeably down. His four-seamer averaged 94.3 miles per hour last year but is down to 93.5 so far this year. His sinker has gone from 93.8 to 93 mph while his slider has dropped from 81.1 to 79.7 mph.
That got him bumped off the Seattle roster but the Rays will take a shot on him. Tampa is out to a strong 13-11 start but it’s no thanks to their bullpen. Their relief pitchers have a collective 5.64 ERA, worse than every team in the majors apart from the Astros and Royals. Injuries have taken a toll on the depth. They lost Manuel Rodríguez to Tommy John surgery last year. Both Steven Wilson and Edwin Uceta began the season on the injured list due to spring injuries. Since the regular season started, they have lost Garrett Cleavinger and Mason Englert to the IL.
The healthy guys haven’t stepped up. Yoendrys Gómez, Ian Seymour and Griffin Jax have each thrown at least nine innings and no one in that trio has an ERA below 7.00. Bryan Baker, Hunter Bigge, Kevin Kelly and Cole Sulser have been a bit better but each member of that quarter has an ERA above 4.00. There’s room in there for Legumina to earn some innings, especially if he can regain some of last year’s strikeouts and velocity.
To get Legumina on their big league club, the Rays are subtracting from their farm system. Cummings, now 24, was acquired as the player to be named later in the 2024 trade which sent Randy Arozarena to Seattle. Now the Mariners get Cummings back a little over a year later.
The right-hander has mostly worked as a starter in his minor league career. Prior to the first trade, he tossed 116 1/3 High-A innings in 2024 with a 4.17 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 50.3% ground ball rate. In 2025, he pitched in Double-A and Triple-A, logging 123 innings. His ERA improved to 3.29 but with a reduced 17.6% strikeout rate and 47.1% ground ball rate. So far in 2026, he’s been pitching in relief in Double-A. He tossed 5 1/3 innings over three appearances with a 1.69 ERA, 33.3% strikeout rate, 5.6% walk rate and 45.5% ground ball rate.
Perhaps the Mariners are intrigued by that recent bullpen move or maybe they will want to stretch him back out. Either way, they are probably happy to get back a guy they drafted, while giving up a guy they had already cut from their roster. Cummings will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this December if not added to the 40-man roster.
Photo courtesy of David Frerker, Imagn Images
2026-27 Club Options: AL East
A couple weeks ago, MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald highlighted the players who could choose to return to the free agent market via opt-out clauses. We’ll now take a division by division look at those whose contracts contain club, mutual or vesting options. That kicks off tonight with the AL East.
Although it’s early in the season, a lot of these provisions are fairly easy to predict. The mutual options are almost certain to be declined by either the player or team (usually the latter). They’re accounting measures, essentially an unofficial deferral within the term of the contract itself. The player agrees to push back a percentage of the guaranteed money to the end of the deal in the form of an option buyout — which is paid after the end of the World Series rather than evenly distributed during the regular season as salary.
Baltimore Orioles
- RHP Zach Eflin: $25MM mutual option ($2MM buyout)
Eflin’s return to the Orioles was dashed by yet another injury: an elbow ligament that required Tommy John surgery. The O’s probably weren’t signing up for a $25MM salary even if he’d stayed healthy this year, but this is as obvious a buyout as these decisions get.
- LHP Dietrich Enns: $3.5MM club option ($125K buyout)
Enns pitched well for the O’s down the stretch after a deadline trade from Detroit. The 34-year-old southpaw worked to a 3.14 ERA while striking out 28% of batters faced across 28 2/3 innings. Although he’s nowhere close to six years of MLB service time, his contract contained a 2026 club option that presumably had a clause ensuring he’d become a free agent if the team declined. That’s fairly common for players like Enns who had spent the preceding couple seasons pitching in Asia.
The O’s restructured Enns’ contract to pay him a $2.5MM salary and guarantee a $125K buyout on a $3.5MM team option for the ’27 season. He has walked five batters over 4 1/3 innings to begin this season. Enns landed on the injured list a couple weeks ago with a foot infection. He began a rehab assignment in Triple-A on Saturday. This one is too early to judge.
- 1B Ryan Mountcastle: $7.5MM club option
Mountcastle agreed to tack on a $7.5MM option to avoid going to an arbitration hearing last offseason. Speculatively, that’s probably due to the CBA provision which doesn’t fully guarantee salaries determined at an arbitration hearing until Opening Day. Had Mountcastle not settled, the O’s might’ve released him for termination pay during Spring Training after making a splash on Pete Alonso earlier in the winter.
Although the O’s were surely happy to get the extra year of club control, it probably won’t be of much benefit. Mountcastle broke a bone in his left foot last week and will miss at least two months. It’s his second straight year with a significant injury. He lost a couple months to a hamstring strain in 2025. Mountcastle was already an odd roster fit who’d make more sense as a trade chip. Maybe he’ll return in the second half and hit well enough that the O’s feel the option price is too good to pass up, but it’s likelier this is getting declined.
Boston Red Sox
- LHP Aroldis Chapman: $13MM mutual option ($300K buyout); vests at $13MM at 40 innings pitched
Chapman’s option vests if he reaches 40 innings pitched this season and passes an end of year physical. He has surpassed 40 frames in three straight seasons. He’s at 7 2/3 innings thus far. It’d take at least one injured list stint — probably an absence of 6-8 weeks — for him to fall short of 40 innings.
In any case, the Sox would be happy to have him back at that price if he’s healthy. Chapman was probably the best reliever in MLB last season, firing 61 1/3 innings of 1.17 ERA ball with a 37% strikeout rate. The punchouts are down early this year in an exceedingly tiny sample, yet he has only allowed one run and is 4-4 in save opportunities. He remains at the top of his game at age 38.
- RHP Sonny Gray: $30MM mutual option ($10MM buyout)
Gray restructured his contract as a condition of the offseason trade that sent him from St. Louis to Boston. The deal initially came with a $35MM salary for this year and a $5MM option buyout. Gray agreed to move $4MM of salary back to the buyout while picking up an extra $1MM as a condition for waiving his no-trade clause. He’ll be a free agent.
- RHP Garrett Whitlock: $8.25MM club option ($1MM buyout)
Whitlock’s contract comes with an $8.25MM team option that includes $4MM in unspecified escalators. There’s also a $10.5MM club option for the ’28 season. Whitlock has been one of the best setup arms in MLB throughout his career. He rebounded from an injury-plagued ’24 season to fire 72 frames of 2.25 ERA ball with a 31% strikeout rate last year.
The righty’s command has been a little wobbly this year and his sinker velocity is down a couple ticks. Still, he’s only allowed two earned runs while striking out 11 through his first nine innings. No other Boston reliever is getting higher-leverage assignments on average. This is one of the likelier options to be exercised.
New York Yankees
- None.
Tampa Bay Rays
- 1B Yandy Díaz: $10MM club option; converts to $13MM option which automatically vests at 500 plate appearances
Tampa Bay preemptively locked in Díaz’s $12MM club option for the 2026 season during Spring Training ’25. In exchange, the first baseman gave the team a $10MM option for ’27 that would vest at $13MM as long as he stayed healthy enough to reach 500 plate appearances. Díaz is a little over 20% of the way there. Even if he suffers an injury that takes the vesting provision off the table, he’s been such a good hitter that Tampa Bay would probably be happy to exercise the $10MM option.
- RHP Nick Martinez: $20MM mutual option ($4MM buyout)
The mutual option in the Martinez contract was purely one of the aforementioned accounting mechanisms. The Rays aren’t paying him a $20MM salary even if he pitches to their expectations. He’ll be bought out.
- CF Cedric Mullins: $10MM mutual option ($500K buyout)
The same is very likely true for Mullins. A $10MM option price is rich for Tampa Bay unless the former All-Star outfielder has a resurgent season — in which case, he’d decline his end and look for a multi-year deal. The early returns aren’t encouraging, as Mullins is hitting .156 with two homers through his first 21 games. Over the past calendar year, he’s a .194/.257/.336 hitter.
- RHP Drew Rasmussen: $8MM club option ($500K buyout); option could escalate up to $20MM depending upon Rasmussen’s health and innings total
Before the 2025 season, the Rays signed Rasmussen to a two-year deal that bought out his final arbitration years. It included a complex club option for 2027 that was heavily dependent on his health. The option comes with an $8MM base value but includes up to $12MM in escalators based on starts and time spent on the injured list.
Rasmussen had only once topped 80 MLB innings at the time of his extension. He has undergone multiple elbow procedures and broke into the league as a reliever because of durability concerns. Rasmussen has stayed healthy over the past year-plus. He pitched a career-high 150 innings en route to a top 10 Cy Young placement in 2025. He’s out to a similarly excellent start to the ’26 campaign, allowing just four earned runs through his first 19 2/3 innings.
The option value will begin to climb before long. It’ll jump to $8.5MM once he reaches eight starts and includes additional escalators for every fourth start up through 28 appearances. If he makes 28+ starts, it’d jump to a minimum of $14MM. That’s just the beginning, as the number climbs if he avoids a long-term injured list stint. It’d get up to $20MM if he goes the entire season without an arm injury.
At $8MM, Rasmussen is an unmitigated bargain even for a low-payroll Rays club. The escalators will probably climb quickly enough that he’ll be a trade candidate. That could happen midseason if the team isn’t in the playoff hunt or early next offseason if they hold him at the deadline. If Rasmussen repeats last year’s production, he’s not going to be in any danger of being bought out — as closer Pete Fairbanks was when escalators pushed his option value from $7MM to $11MM.
Note: The Rays hold a $3.1MM club option on INF Taylor Walls. He’d remain eligible for arbitration if the team declines.
Toronto Blue Jays
- CF Myles Straw: $8MM club option ($1.75MM buyout); Guardians paying Toronto $1.75MM at season’s end as part of 2025 trade
The Blue Jays acquired Straw in a salary dump trade with the Guardians over the 2024-25 offseason. Toronto agreed to cover $11MM of the remaining two years and $14.75MM on Straw’s underwater contract. (He’d gone unclaimed on waivers that same offseason and was no longer on Cleveland’s 40-man roster.) In exchange, the Guards sent the Jays international bonus pool space. Toronto could then increase their offer to Roki Sasaki by an extra $2MM in a late, ultimately unsuccessful effort to sway the star NPB pitcher away from signing with the Dodgers.
Sasaki’s decision to join L.A. made this initially look like a complete bust for Toronto. To his credit, Straw has salvaged the move. He made the team in 2025 and did a nice job in a fourth outfield role, hitting .262/.313/.367 while playing his typically excellent outfield defense. He’s out to a good start this season as well and provides a high-floor depth option if Daulton Varsho misses any time.
Will that be enough to convince the Jays to keep Straw around? They certainly didn’t anticipate exercising an $8MM option at the time of the trade. That’s made clear enough by the teams’ agreement for the Guardians to send Toronto a $1.75MM payment — which matches the buyout value — at the end of the ’26 season. Cleveland is sending the money either way, though, so it’d amount to a $6.25MM call if the Jays want to bring Straw back.
That’s a little rich for a fourth outfielder, which is what Straw has been for the last few seasons. Varsho is an impending free agent and the Jays don’t have anyone waiting in the wings from the farm system. Straw’s play and the possibility of Varsho walking has made this a tougher call than even the Jays’ front office would have anticipated.
Edwin Uceta Diagnosed With Subscapularis Strain
Rays reliever Edwin Uceta has been diagnosed with a subscapularis strain in his throwing shoulder, manager Kevin Cash told reporters on Monday afternoon (link via Adam Berry of MLB.com). The righty will be shut down completely for another 2-3 weeks.
Uceta was already down with a shoulder impingement. This is a different injury that arose during his rehab assignment. Uceta had made four minor league appearances and would likely have been activated this week if not for the new injury.
There’s now a decent chance he’ll end up on the 60-day injured list once the team needs a 40-man roster spot. The Rays could backdate any IL transfer to Opening Day even though it’s a different injury. Uceta won’t resume throwing until the first half of May at this point, so it’s difficult to imagine he’ll be ready for MLB action by the beginning of June.
It’s a tough hit to the Tampa Bay bullpen. Uceta has been one of their better relievers over the past two seasons and was slated for a high-leverage role. He turned in a 1.51 ERA across 41 2/3 innings two years ago. Last season’s 3.79 mark wasn’t as impressive, but he struck out almost a third of opposing hitters while tying Garrett Cleavinger for the team lead with 21 holds.
Cleavinger has also been down for the past three weeks with calf tightness. He’s on a rehab assignment and should be back within the next couple days. Tampa Bay placed Mason Englert on the 15-day IL this afternoon. They’ll be without Manuel Rodríguez for the majority of the season and are without middle reliever Steven Wilson for a couple months.
It’s not a coincidence that the relief corps has been a weakness for the first couple weeks of the season. Kevin Kelly, Griffin Jax, Bryan Baker and Hunter Bigge have taken on most of the significant innings. Bigge has the best ERA but with ugly strikeout and walk marks. Jax has similarly bleak underlying numbers and has not gotten good results. Baker has been around average, while Kelly has pitched well outside of one six-run drubbing at the hands of the Twins.
The Rays entered play Monday with a 5.38 bullpen ERA that ranks 26th in MLB. They’re 25th in strikeout/walk rate differential with the league’s third-highest home run rate.
Rays Select Trevor Martin
The Rays announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Trevor Martin. He’ll take the active roster spot of fellow righty Mason Englert, who has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to right forearm tightness. To open a 40-man spot, righty Michael Grove has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
Martin, 25, was a third-round pick of the Rays in 2022. Tampa used him as a starter in his first professional seasons but converted him to a reliever last year. From the start of 2025 to the present, he has thrown 62 2/3 innings, split between Double-A and Triple-A, having allowed 2.73 earned runs per nine. His 9.5% walk rate is a bit high but his 25.2% strikeout rate is a few ticks above average. He averages about 95 miles per hour on his fastball, per Statcast, while also featuring a cutter, splitter, slider and changeup.
That stat line includes 9 1/3 scoreless innings to start this year. He has worked around a 14.6% walk rate in the early going but putting up zeroes has seemingly attracted the attention of the front office. Martin gets the call for the first time and will make his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
Though Martin has done his part, the injury situation has played a role as well. Tampa lost Edwin Uceta and Steven Wilson to injuries in spring training. Since then, Garrett Cleavinger and now Englert have hit the IL as well. Manuel Rodríguez is still recovering from last year’s Tommy John surgery. Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times relays that Englert and manager Kevin Cash don’t consider his injury to be serious, so perhaps he will be back relatively quickly. Martin has a full slate of options and could be shuffled between Triple-A and the majors as those guys get healthy or when fresh arms are needed.
As for Grove, he underwent shoulder surgery while with the Dodgers last year and missed the entire campaign. He was bumped off the roster at the end of the season and became a free agent. The Rays signed him last week and immediately placed him on the 15-day IL. His exact timeline isn’t clear but this transfer suggests the Rays don’t expect him to be back in the majors soon. He won’t be eligible for reinstatement until June.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images