The Rays are locking in Drew Rasmussen for 2027, picking up the right-hander’s club option after a season that only strengthened his case as one of the best starters in the game.
Rasmussen is set to make $20 million next season, a number that reflects just how far he has come since the Rays landed him from the Brewers in the May 2021 trade built around shortstop Willy Adames. Since arriving in Tampa Bay, he has put together a 2.73 ERA across 133 appearances, 111 of them starts, and 600 1/3 innings. An internal brace procedure limited him to 73 1/3 innings from 2023-24, but he has still made 61 starts since then and kept producing at a high level.
His 2025 season was the best of his career. The 31-year-old earned his second straight All-Star selection and worked a personal-high 172 innings, posting a 2.67 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate and a 4.8% walk rate.
That placed him seventh in the majors in ERA and fWAR at 5.0, while his walk rate ranked second among qualified starters. Teammate Nick Martinez led that category.
Rasmussen’s value showed up again when the games got bigger. He helped power a Rays pitching staff that carried the club to 98 wins and the No. 1 seed in the American League.
In the postseason, he was excellent for most of the run, throwing 28 2/3 innings over five appearances with a 2.20 ERA, 31 strikeouts and five walks. The Rays beat the Yankees and Guardians before falling to Rasmussen’s former team, the Brewers, in a five-game World Series.
He started twice in the Fall Classic and was tagged for four runs over 7 2/3 innings, including a 4-1 loss in Game 5.
Even with the option exercised, Rasmussen’s future in Tampa Bay is not a sure thing. MLBTR’s Steve Adams, Anthony Franco and Darragh McDonald ranked him No. 2 on their list of this offseason’s top 40 trade candidates. The Rays have never paid a player $20 million for a single season, and Rasmussen’s option ballooned from a base value of $8 million to $20 million because of health and innings escalators in the two-year, $8.5 million extension he signed in 2025.
Payroll could also push the situation in another direction. MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker, via contributor Ethan Hullihen, puts the Rays at more than $105 million in cash commitments for next season.
The club has never opened a season with a nine-figure payroll, and Rasmussen’s salary could make him a trade candidate despite his importance. If he were on the market as a free agent right now, the source notes he would rank as the second-most desirable starter available, behind only Tarik Skubal.
There’s a real chance the Rays could lose more than one arm from the group. Rasmussen could be traded, Martinez could leave if his $20 million mutual option is declined, and Freddy Peralta could also depart in free agency. Even if that happens, the Rays would still have Shane McClanahan, Ryan Pepiot Griffin Jax and Ian Seymour as rotation options for 2027.
In Other News...
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Orioles Face A Big Rotation Question In Freddy Peralta Sweepstakes
Freddy Peraltas path over the past year has already been unusual enough to keep him in the conversation around Tampa Bay. After being traded from the Brewers to the Mets and then to the Rays, he even ended up facing Milwaukee in the World Series, a matchup that only added to the intrigue around a pitcher whose next stop now feels very much up in the air. With MLB free agency here, Peralta is one of the names being linked to a handful of clubs, including the Rays, Orioles, Braves and Angels.
For Tampa Bay, the interest makes sense on its own terms, even before the market starts to sort itself out. The Rays have rotation questions to answer, and Peraltas availability only sharpens the sense that this could become one of the more closely watched pitching pursuits of the winter. Baltimore may be the team drawing the headline attention, but the Rays are right there in the mix as the sweepstakes takes shape. [Read more 🡒]