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Barry Larkin Joins Group Attempting To Get MLB Franchise In Orlando

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The Orlando Dreamers announced earlier this week that Hall of Famer Barry Larkin has joined the organization, which has the goal of getting an MLB franchise in the city. Larkin, who now lives in Orlando, has the title of MLB ambassador with the Dreamers. Pat Williams, the late former executive for the NBA’s Orlando Magic, co-founded the Dreamers in 2019 as an effort to get an MLB franchise. While Williams passed away last summer, the organization has continued that goal.

“I spent considerable time talking to key people in Major League Baseball, including Commissioner Manfred, before committing to join the Orlando Dreamers’ effort,” Larkin said in the press release. “There were many phone calls to (co-founder Jim Schnorf), asking detailed questions concerning the approach, the accomplishments to date, and the strategies moving forward. It became immediately apparent that Orlando has the most compelling market in the country to be the next MLB franchise location. … At this stage in my career, nothing could be more exciting than being a key part of this effort in my adopted home of Orlando, Florida.”

Larkin is a Cincinnati native who spent his entire 19-year big league career with his hometown Reds. He won the 1995 NL MVP award behind a .319 average and Gold Glove defense at shortstop. Larkin made 12 All-Star teams, won the Silver Slugger award on nine occasions, and collected a trio of Gold Glove awards. He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA in 2012, his third year on the ballot.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has said on multiple occasions that he hopes to finalize plans for expansion from 30 to 32 teams by the end of his tenure. He plans to retire when his current contract expires in January 2029. While it’s highly unlikely that expansion teams would be on the field by the ’29 season, it’s possible that host cities could be settled by that point with the league moving to 32 teams early in the 2030s. Manfred has suggested that expansion would be on the back burner until the A’s and Rays’ stadium situations were finalized.

The A’s plan to be in Las Vegas in time for the 2028 season. The Rays seemed to have a long-term stadium plan in St. Petersburg, but the devastating hurricane in the area last fall has thrown those plans into question. That combined with a changed county council makeup after Election Day led the county to delay approval of bonds that’d finance the stadium. The Rays have claimed that makes it impossible to have the new stadium complete for the 2028 season. The team is responsible for cost overruns on the project, which it says will be exorbitant with construction going until 2029.

While Pinellas County approved the bonds last month, the Rays reiterated that the delay has proven too costly. They’re pushing for more public funding as a result, which the county has indicated it is unwilling to approve. The Rays have until March 31 to meet various construction benchmarks on the project or the bond agreement will automatically be nullified. They are committed to play at Tropicana Field through the 2028 season. The Trop was severely damaged by the hurricane and it is unclear whether it’ll be playable by 2026. The Rays will play their ’25 home games at Tampa’s George M. Steinbrenner Field, home of the Yankees’ Low-A affiliate.

Larkin said at his introductory press conference that the Orlando group is open to pursuing both an expansion franchise or a potentially relocated one (alluding to the Rays’ situation). Manfred was asked about the possibility of relocating the Rays in November. He replied that MLB remained “focused on our franchise in Tampa Bay.”

Rays Sign Jonathan Hernandez To Minor League Deal

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The Rays announced their list of non-roster invitees to MLB camp. Reliever Jonathan Hernández signed a minor league deal today and will be in big league Spring Training. He’d elected free agency at the start of the offseason.

Hernández, 28, joins the third organization of his career. He’d been a career-long member of the Rangers until last summer. Hernández signed with Texas as an amateur free agent and got to the big leagues in 2019. He had a strong showing in the shortened 2020 season, working to a 2.90 earned run average over 31 innings. An elbow injury required Tommy John surgery early the following year.

That kept Hernández out of action into the second half in 2022. He returned to post a 2.97 ERA through 30 1/3 frames, picking up his four career saves along the way. Hernández’s strikeout and walk rates were underwhelming, which proved a precursor for regression in the coming seasons. He has allowed 5.40 earned runs per nine in each of the last two years.

Texas pushed Hernández off the roster at last year’s trade deadline. He carried a 5.05 ERA over a career-high 41 innings at the time. The Mariners claimed him off waivers. Hernández allowed three runs over 2 1/3 innings with Seattle before the M’s designated him for assignment. He cleared waivers that time around and spent the rest of the season in Triple-A.

Since the start of 2023, Hernández owns a 5.40 ERA across 75 frames. His 21.5% strikeout percentage is slightly below average, while he has walked nearly 13% of batters faced. Hernández has kept the ball on the ground on half the batted balls he has allowed, though. He averages nearly 97 MPH on his sinker but hasn’t found success with that pitch; opponents have respectively hit .350 and .323 against it over the past two seasons. Hernández has fared a lot better with his slider, which he uses roughly half the time, and his infrequently deployed changeup.

Rays Acquire Brandon Eisert

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The Rays have acquired left-hander Brandon Eisert from the Blue Jays, according to announcements from both clubs. The Jays, who designated Eisert for assignment earlier this week when they signed Anthony Santander, receive cash considerations in return. The Rays had an open 40-man spot and don’t need to make a corresponding move.

Eisert, 27, joins the second club of his career. Selected by the Blue Jays in the 18th-round of the 2019 draft, he worked his way up to make his major league debut last year. To this point, his big league track record is minimal. He tossed 6 2/3 innings for the Jays last year, allowing three earned runs.

The Rays are surely more interested in the southpaw’s minor league numbers, which have generally been strong. Over the past four years, he has logged 264 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.76 earned run average, 29.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.

Despite the strong minor league results, Eisert lacks the power arsenal clubs are usually looking to get from relievers these days. His fastball only averaged 91.2 miles per hour during his brief major league work. It was a tick lower in Triple-A, coming in at 90.2 mph last year. Perhaps the Jays expected that the relatively lower velocity would prevent him from succeeding in the majors as much as he did in the minors.

The Rays had an open roster spot and will use it to get a close-up look at Eisert. He still has options, which is surely appealing for a club that regularly rotates arms on and off its roster throughout the season. Garrett Cleavinger is the top lefty reliever on the club right now. They gave Mason Montgomery some work in the big league bullpen last year but he’s mostly been a starter in the minors. Eisert and Montgomery both have options, so it wouldn’t be a surprise for Tampa to have them taking turns on the big league roster as the second lefty behind Cleavinger, while shuttling to Triple-A from time to time.

Rays, Taylor Walls Avoid Arbitration

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The Rays announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Taylor Walls to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2026 season. In doing so, the two parties avoided an arbitration hearing. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Walls will earn a $1.4MM guarantee: a $1.35MM salary this coming season with a $50K buyout on a $2.45MM option for the ’26 campaign. The price of that option would be bumped by $50K, to $2.5MM, if Walls tallies 450 plate appearances, Topkin adds. Walls is represented by Vayner Sports.

Walls and Tampa Bay had exchanged figures last week, with the shortstop filing for a $1.575MM salary to the team’s $1.3MM submission. (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $1.3MM salary for Walls.) It’s the first trip through the arbitration process for the infielder, who’s under team control through 2027 regardless of the outcome of that 2026 option.

The 28-year-old Walls had a brutal season at the plate in 2024 but is a talented infield defender capable of handling multiple positions. In 252 plate appearances, he slashed only .183/.282/.248 with one homer, five doubles, three triples and 16 steals (in 20 attempts). Walls did continue to show a disciplined approach, walking in 12.3% of those 252 turns at the plate — right in line with his career 12.1% mark. His contact profile was sub-par, however. Walls averaged only 86.2 mph off the bat with a bleak 24% hard-hit rate, and he punched out in 26.6% of his plate appearances.

Defensive metrics are divided on Walls, who’s primarily been a shortstop (1983 big league innings) but also has ample experience at second base (524 innings) and the hot corner (419 innings). Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating think he’s a flat-out plus with the glove. DRS, in particular, credits Walls with a whopping career mark of +35 at shortstop alone (plus another 15 DRS between second and third). Statcast has generally favored his work at third base but is down on Walls at shortstop, pegging him at two outs below average in each of the past two seasons.

The Rays clearly feel Walls is better than Statcast measures him to be. At least insofar as making the plays he’s supposed to, there’s good evidence to back that up. Walls was charged with only three errors in last year’s 625 innings of defense. He made a combined eight errors across three positions in 792 innings in 2023.

Even if the Rays decline Walls’ option for the 2026 season, he’d be under team control and arb-eligible a second time. They’d likely only do so if they felt Walls comfortably projected for less than the 75% raise his option value represents — although in that scenario, he’d be a potential non-tender candidate as well.

For now, Walls is the favorite to open the 2025 season at shortstop, though he’ll have some competition from fellow middle infielder Jose Caballero. In all likelihood, one will start the year at short and the other will fill a utility role, although Osleivis Basabe could get himself back into the mix if he shows signs of a rebound from a dreadful 2024 season this spring.

The Opening Day assignment doesn’t necessarily carry as much weight as who’ll finish the season at shortstop, though. Walls, Caballero and to a lesser extent Basabe will all be in the mix, but all eyes will be on 2021 first rounder Carson Williams, whom Baseball America just this morning tabbed as MLB’s No. 11 overall prospect. Williams, regarded as a plus defender at short, posted a .256/.352/.469 slash in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting this past season, putting him about 42% better than average in that league, by measure of wRC+. The 21-year-old (22 in June) is likely ticketed for Triple-A to begin the season and could make his MLB debut at some point this summer, depending on how he fares early on.

Rays, Andrew Wantz Agree To Minor League Contract

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Jan. 17: It’s a two-year minor league contract for Wantz, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The two-year term of the contract — and the lack of a 2025 spring invite — are due to the fact that Wantz is recovering from that elbow procedure and won’t be ready to pitch this spring anyhow.

Jan. 16: The Rays have signed righty Andrew Wantz to a minor league deal, according to the MLB.com transaction log. A client of Beverly Hills Sports Council, Wantz elected minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason.

Wantz has pitched in parts of four seasons out of the Angels bullpen. He got a decent amount of run in middle relief between 2021-23. Wantz topped 20 appearances and threw at least 25 innings in each of those seasons. He combined for a 3.85 earned run average while striking out more than a quarter of batters faced across 117 frames.

The 29-year-old righty didn’t get much work last year. He only made one big league appearance, tossing 1 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Wantz worked as a starter for six of his seven outings at Triple-A Salt Lake, his biggest stretch out of the rotation since he was in Double-A in 2019. He allowed a 6.17 ERA over 23 1/3 frames. Wantz punched out an excellent 31.8% of opponents but issued walks to an untenable 14% of batters faced.

An elbow injury ended his season in June. Wantz underwent some form of season-ending surgery, though it was not a full Tommy John procedure. The Halos opted not to carry him on the 40-man roster after that injury and waived him at the end of the season. Once he returns to health, Wantz can compete for a spot in Kevin Cash’s middle relief group or stretch back out as rotation depth on a Tampa Bay team that is frequently willing to convert relievers to starting pitchers.

Rays Counting On Younger Players To Produce In 2025

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  • Erik Neander said “we’ll look for those opportunities” to further bolster the position-player side, but the Rays’ president of baseball operations told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times believes the team’s offense can improve based on in-house sources alone.  “You’re counting on some players internally to take that next step forward or bounce back from where they’ve been, and that was similar to ’22 and obviously ‘23 offensively….There are an assortment of players we have that we think there’s good reason to believe they will be better than where they were last year, and/or just as a unit, that we can be a little bit more better….just kind of using history as a guide,” Neander said.  When considering adding veterans to the mix, Topkin notes that along with salary cost, the Rays also weigh whether or not that veteran could take at-bats away from a younger player that might well deliver similar production with the same playing time.

17 Players Exchange Filing Figures

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This evening’s deadline to exchange filing figures has come and gone. The majority of arbitration-eligible players agreed to contracts to avoid going to a hearing. There were 17 instances where the player and team did not come to terms.

Technically, nothing prevents players and teams from continuing to negotiate. However, virtually every team takes a “file-and-trial” approach to the process. Clubs will mostly refuse to continue talks about one-year deals after this date. They’ll often make exceptions for discussions involving multi-year contracts or one-year deals with a club/mutual option. It’s unlikely that all of these players will end up getting to a hearing, but the majority probably will.

If the sides go to a hearing, a three-person arbitration panel will either choose the player’s or the team’s filing figure. They cannot pick a midpoint. That’s designed to prevent the parties from anchoring by filing at extremely high or low figures. Teams’ preferences for the file-and-trial approach follows a similar logic. The idea is to deter players from submitting a higher number from which they could continue to negotiate until the hearing begins.

The list of players who could go to a hearing this winter (service time in parentheses):

Angels

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Dodgers

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Pirates

Rays

Red Sox

Yankees

—————————————

Tucker and the Cubs have the biggest gap in filing figures at $2.5MM. He’s one of the top two free agents in next year’s class and is unlikely to sign an extension, so they’re almost certainly headed to a hearing. King, who will be one of the best pitchers on the open market next winter, is the only other player with more than $1MM at stake depending on the results of the hearing. The smallest divide is the paltry $150K gap between Rengifo’s and the Angels’ respective filing figures. Hearings are scheduled to begin on January 27 and could run through February 14.

Rays Sign Joey Krehbiel To Minor League Deal

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The Rays have signed Joey Krehbiel to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The right-hander is represented by Loren Pincus.

Krehbiel, 32, didn’t crack the majors in 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners about this time last year. He went on to throw 58 innings over 54 appearances for their Triple-A club, allowing 3.26 earned runs per nine. His 22.8% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate and 44.9% ground ball rate were all within a point or two of typical averages.

He does have 74 innings of major league experience, most of that coming as an Oriole in 2022, though he also spent time with the Diamondbacks and Rays prior to joining Baltimore. He has a 3.65 ERA in his big league career with an 18.4% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 42.8% ground ball rate.

His previous stint with the Rays was in 2021, signing a minor league deal going into that year as well. His minor league work that year was arguably his most impressive performance in recent years. He tossed 43 Triple-A innings with a 4.19 ERA, 29.5% strikeout rate and 5.1% walk rate. That got him a brief stint on the major league roster in September, before he went the Orioles on waivers. Baltimore kept him around for a while, though he lost his roster spot during the 2023 season, which led to his minor league deal with the Mariners.

The Rays are obviously familiar with Krehbiel and got some decent results out of him a few years ago, so the two sides have reunited. If he can earn his way onto the roster, he still has an option, which is surely attractive for a team like the Rays as they frequently churn pitchers through the roster. Krehbiel also has less than two years of service time, so he could be cheaply retained beyond this year if he’s holding a roster spot at season’s end.

Rays Unlikely To Move Yandy Diaz, Brandon Lowe

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The Rays entered the offseason likely to shed some payroll via trades of veteran players — a frequent reality for the budget-crunched Tampa Bay club — which prompted many (MLBTR included) to speculate on the possibility of trading infielders Yandy Diaz and Brandon Lowe. The Rays are teeming with young infield options, and both players are set to earn eight-figure salaries in 2025. However, teams that have spoken to the Rays about Diaz and Lowe have been given the impression that Tampa Bay is likely to hold onto both players for the start of the upcoming season, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. More broadly, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic implies that the Rays aren’t keen on subtracting from the offense at all between now and Opening Day.

Tampa Bay has indeed shed some notable salary this winter, but it’s come in the form of trades and non-tenders. Left-hander Jeffrey Springs and his $10.5MM salary in each of the next two seasons went to the A’s in exchange for flamethrowing righty Joe Boyle, a pair of minor leaguers, and the Athletics’ Competitive Balance selection in the upcoming 2025 draft. Jose Siri (projected $2.3MM salary) was traded to the Mets in exchange for reliever Eric Orze. Nearly $10MM of additional projected salary was shed when the team non-tendered outfielder Dylan Carlson and lefties Colin Poche, Tyler Alexander and Richard Lovelady.

That collection of cost-cutting maneuvers trimmed $22-23MM from next year’s books. The only salary of note the Rays have added in place of those departures is the $8.5MM guaranteed to catcher Danny Jansen, who signed with Tampa Bay in mid-December. RosterResource currently projects the Rays for a $76MM payroll and about $104MM of luxury obligations — down from last year’s respective marks of $89MM and $115MM.

One of the motivations behind freeing up payroll space with trades of veterans would be to afford more at-bats to young players with little left to prove in Triple-A (e.g. Jonathan Aranda, Curtis Mead) while also creating flexibility to bring in other free agents of note. Circumstances well beyond the Rays’ control have hobbled any such efforts, however. The damage wrought on Tropicana Field by Hurricane Milton both left the Rays facing even more financial uncertainty than usual and also made it harder to lure free agents. The Rays will play their 2025 home games at a minor league facility — Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, the Class-A home of the Yankees — which is going to reduce interest for plenty of players on the open market.

The Rays scored the second-fewest runs in MLB last year, with their collective 604 mark leading only the White Sox. Tampa Bay ranked 27th in the majors in batting average (.230), 24th in on-base percentage (.302), 29th in slugging percentage (.366) and 28th in home runs (147). Viewed through that lens, subtracting one or both of Diaz (.281/.341/.414, 120 wRC+) and Lowe (.244/.311/.473, 123 wRC+) would feel counterproductive — at least in a vacuum.

However, the Rays habitually trade quality players as their salaries rise and their club control dwindles. Their willingness to engage in such frequent roster churn and their ability to successfully identify quality long-term contributors in the return for such trades has become a hallmark of the organization’s success and led to near-perennial contention in a stacked AL East — despite bottom-of-the-barrel payroll numbers. Diaz is earning $10MM this coming season and has a $12MM club option (no buyout) in 2026. Lowe will be paid $10.5MM this year and has an $11.5MM club option in 2026 ($500K buyout). Both are free agents in the 2026-27 offseason.

The dwindling club control on both players will make them prime trade candidates this summer if things don’t go well for the Rays or if Tampa Bay feels their production can be replaced by turning their respective positions over to younger options. The Rays aren’t the type of club to be shy about dealing solid contributors from the roster even in the midst of contending seasons.

With regard to the 2025 roster, however, the hope will ostensibly be for inexperienced players like Aranda and third baseman Junior Caminero to make strides at the plate, while other young players like Josh Lowe and Christopher Morel hopefully rebound at the dish. Both had strong showings in 2023 before wilting in 2024. Adding Jansen should be an upgrade to a catching corps that produced disastrous results at the plate in 2024 — even if the longtime Blue Jays backstop can’t recover from his own 2024 struggles with the bat. Jansen hit just .206/.308/.348 in 328 plate appearances last year, but even that would be an upgrade over the woeful .194/.272/.291 output from Tampa Bay backstops in 2024. And, if Jansen can rediscover the .237/.317/.487 form he displayed from 2021-23, it’d be a massive boon for the Rays.

Time will tell just how the Rays’ offense recovers — or fails to recover — from last year’s doldrums. Trades can never be expressly ruled out for a club like the Rays, but for the time being, it seems they’ll hang onto the veteran bats they have and reassess their trade candidacy this summer. Others on the roster (e.g. Pete Fairbanks, Zack Littell) have also come up in trade rumblings this winter, but there’s been some recent cold water thrown on that pair being available as well.

Rays Sign Drew Rasmussen To Extension

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The Rays finalized a two-year extension with right-hander Drew Rasmussen on Tuesday afternoon. The Beverly Hills Sports Council client is guaranteed $8.5MM for what would have been his final two arbitration years. The deal includes a 2027 club option that has a base value of $8MM.

He will receive a $500K signing bonus, a $2MM salary next season, and a $5.5MM salary in 2026. The option comes with a $500K buyout. Various escalators could increase the option value by another $12MM. The price could increase anywhere between $1.5MM and $6MM based on Rasmussen’s health over the next two seasons. He could unlock another $6MM based on his start totals in 2026: $500,000 for eight starts, $750,000 for 12, $1MM each for 16 and 20, $1.25MM for 24 and $1.5MM for 28.

Ramussen, 29, missed the bulk of the 2023-24 seasons recovering from an internal brace procedure to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. That surgery tamped down his workload in both seasons as well as his expected price tag in arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a modest $2MM salary for the talented righty in the upcoming season. By virtue of his salary and that signing bonus, he’ll top that sum under this new multi-year arrangement while also sacrificing a year of free agency to lock in some immediate earnings.

It’s an understandable trade-off for Rasmussen, who didn’t get a full look in a big league rotation until his age-26 season (2022) and has since missed ample time due to injury. A sixth-round pick of the Brewers back in 2018, Rasmussen signed for just a $135K bonus and didn’t make his big league debut until 2020. In total, he’s earned under $4MM in his career thus far.

Rasmussen was traded from Milwaukee to Tampa Bay in the 2021 deal that sent Willy Adames to the Brewers. He was sharp down then stretch in a hybrid role for Tampa Bay but had a full-fledged breakout in 2022, That season, Rasmussen pitched a career-high 146 innings and turned in a 2.84 earned run average with a slightly below-average 21.4% strikeout rate against a terrific 5.3% walk rate. He kept the ball on the ground at a strong 46.6% clip. Rasmussen averaged 95.5 mph on his heater, deftly avoided hard contact and recorded a 12.1% swinging-strike rate that suggested more punchouts could be in the tank down the road.

That indeed looked to be the case early in 2023, too. Rasmussen notched an even better 2.62 ERA but saw his strikeout rate spike to 26.6%. He maintained plus command (6.2%) and also saw his ground-ball rate surge to 52.6% — an increase of six percentage points over the prior season. For a span of 36 starts from 2022-23, Rasmussen pitched like a genuine No. 1 or 2 starter — a clear playoff arm who could pitch near the front of any rotation.

Injuries, however, had other ideas for the talented righty. The Rays announced on July 8, 2023 that Rasmussen would require surgery. He wound up missing 13 months of action, returning to a big league mound on Aug. 7 of this past season. The Rays used him primarily as a reliever. He “started” four games but did so throwing only two innings apiece and working as an opener. The results, however, were excellent. In 28 2/3 frames, Rasmussen posted a 2.83 ERA, 30.2% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 53.3% grounder rate.

The plan now is for Rasmussen to return to the rotation. He’ll join Shane McClanahan (returning from Tommy John surgery), Ryan Pepiot, Taj Bradley, Shane Baz and Zack Littell in a very talented mix of arms. Each of McClanahan, Rasmussen and Baz could face some form of workload limitations, as Baz has yet to pitch a full season since returning from his own ligament surgery in 2022 — though he did pitch 118 2/3 innings combined between Triple-A and the majors in 2024.

For the Rays, there’s little to no impact on their 2025 budget. Rasmussen will only earn a nominal $500K more than his projected arbitration price, thanks to that signing bonus. They’ll also lock in the right-hander’s 2026 salary, gaining some cost certainty. It’s possible that Rasmussen could’ve outpaced that $5.5MM salary in arbitration with a big year, but likely not by much, given the low platform from which he’d be starting. The concession for locking in that ’26 salary is giving up a would-be free-agent season — his age-31 year. So long as he’s healthy, that option will pay him at least $8MM, though with good health there’s a good chance it’ll be a fair bit higher.

While it’s not quite to the same scale as the Rays’ extension with former ace Tyler Glasnow, there are some parallels here. Tampa Bay is putting down some guaranteed money on a talented but oft-injured righty. Glasnow’s $25MM salary in the final season of his own extension was guaranteed, whereas Rasmussen will have to remain healthy to push close to that number. Still, it’s a potentially weighty salary by the Rays’ standards, and one that could render Rasmussen a trade candidate down the road. The extension gives the Rays some extra control over a potential frontline arm but also a viable trade candidate down the road. It’s perhaps cynical to point out the manner in which an extension boosts a player’s trade value in the immediate aftermath of the agreement, but the Rays have a track record of operating in this manner.

For the time being, Rasmussen will head into the season as a locked-in member of a deep and talented rotation. The Rays haven’t done much to improve their middling lineup — though Danny Jansen provides a potential notable upgrade behind the plate. Rather, they’ll apparently hope for big strides from ballyhooed third baseman Junior Caminero and rebounds from Josh Lowe and Christopher Morel, both of whom experienced notable drops at the plate following very productive 2023 campaigns.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported that the Rays and Rasmussen were nearing a two-year, $8.5MM extension with an $8MM option for 2027. Topkin reported the presence of escalators in the option, which The Associated Press specified.

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