Bryan Baker’s New Recipe With the Rays Has Made Him a Sneaky All-Star Candidate

Tampa Bay’s 31-year-old closer was acquired from the Orioles last July in a trade that hardly anyone noticed.

Bryan Baker’s 21 saves were tied for the second most in the majors entering Tuesday. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This article was originally published as part of Verducci’s View, a new weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom empties out his notebook over email and covers MLB’s hottest topics, provides in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, looks forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more. If you want to be featured in his new mailbag, please email newsletters@si.com with any questions about MLB or his decades in the sport.

They’ve done it again. The Rays and pitching coach Kyle Snyder keep making pitchers better than they were elsewhere. This time it’s a 31-year-old former 11th round draft pick who was traded twice and waived once. Bryan Baker joined Tampa Bay last July 10 in a trade from Baltimore in which the Rays sent Baltimore the No. 37 pick in the draft. With hardly anyone noticing, the Rays got themselves a power arm with swing and miss stuff and 3 ½ years of control—and a future All-Star selection.

With 21 saves, a 1.95 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP, Baker is deserving of a spot on the AL All-Star team. What did Snyder and the Rays do with Baker? They do what they often do: encourage a pitcher to lean into his best pitch. In this case, it’s been the changeup:

Baker’s Changeup	AVG	SLG	Usage
With Baltimore	.120	.136	17.1%
With Tampa Bay	.137	.275	40.6%

Until Baker joined Tampa Bay, his changeup was a great pitch hiding in plain sight. As recently as 2024, Baker was throwing more sliders than changeups. Tampa Bay changed that. This season Baker essentially has stopped throwing the slider (22 this year, only one this month) while boosting his changeup use to 44.9%.

The magic in Baker’s changeup is not so much in the movement but in the separation in velocity from his fastball, especially now that Baker is throwing his heater at a career high of 97.0 mph. There are 50 pitchers who average 97+ mph on their four-seamer. The ones with the greatest gap in velocity between their fastball and changeup are 1. Dylan Cease (13.6 mph) 2. Baker (11.6) 3. Jaden Hill (11.5) 4. Jhoan Duran (11.1) and 5. Jesus Luzardo (10.8).

Baker found the right place to show off his changeup. Led by another Rays renovation project, Nick Martinez, who boosted his changeup rate from 19.8% to 27.9% since joining Tampa Bay, the Rays this season throw more changeups than any team in recorded history.

How is it working? No team this season allows a lower batting average on changeups than the Rays.

Highest Pct. of Changeups, 2008–26	Usage	Opponents’ Batting Average
1. 2026 Rays	20.8%	.179
2. 2016 Angels	20.1%	.251
3. 2013 Rays1	19.4%	.217
4. 2020 Giants	19.2%	.188
5. 2020 White Sox	19.1%	.201

---