My Two Cents: Is Sunday the End of Rays' Regular Pitching Rotation?

NEW YORK — Every day, day after day since Opening Day, Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash has had it easy when it comes to deciding on a starting pitcher. His five-man rotation simply shows up and takes their turn.

It's been an epic run. When Shane Baz takes the mound on Sunday against the New York Mets, he will be making his 14th consecutive start. Earlier this week, Ryan Pepiot, Zack Littell, Taj Bradley and Drew Rasmussen all did the same thing.

Fourteen starts in a row without missing a beat. For all of them. No injuries, no demotions, no IL stints to re-set. Not even the occasional opener, which is a Rays tradition.

There was just one outlier, on April 13. In the midst of 13 games in 13 days, Cash gave everyone an extra day's rest and called up Joe Boyle for a spot start against the Atlanta Braves. All he did was pitch five no-hit innings in the Rays' 8-3 win.

Other than that, it's been these five. And we made a big deal out of it in late May when they hit 10 straight stars each, and even doled out grades for all five starters.

But since then, through the next four rounds of starts, things have changed. Drew Rasmussen continues to look like an All-Star, and Pepiot and Littell have done some huge things. But Bradley and Baz have really struggled, and it might be time to seriously consider how much longer they can stay in the rotation.

That's why Sunday is a big day for Baz, who hasn't had a quality start since April 25. Since then, he's pitched 41 1/3 innings in eight starts, and allowed 31 earned runs, a whopping 6.75 ERA. He's walked 17 batters during that time too, and has difficulty avoiding trouble.

Baz gets off to good starts, and has a 2.07 ERA in the first three innings of games with opponents batting just .192 against him. But from the fourth inning on, his ERA sits at 8.53 with a .325 opponents' batting. average. That's a disturbing trend. Doesn't sound like a starter, right?

Bradley gave up seven earned runs to Miami on June 7 — and the Marlins roughed up a few weeks earlier too. He gave up five more on Friday night against the Mets but, in his defense, all of them were unearned.

Still, one of the errors was his in a two-run fourth, and he walked three batters in the fifth before getting yanked. There was a Jonathan Aranda error in the inning, but all three walked batters scored, making it 5-1. All the runs were unearned, but it didn't diminish the fact that he walked three guys in one inning. The fact that the Rays came back to win took a bit of a spotlight off his struggles.

So the question must be asked. If Baz struggles again Sunday, is it time to consider a change? Bradley too? They can be good —sometimes really, really good — but they can also implode at any minute. The Rays are playing great baseball right now — a majors-best 17-6 since May 20 — and are serious postseason threats. They can't have starters getting knocked around.

We wouldn't even be having these conversations, of course, if there weren't options out there to disrupt this daily rotation routine.

There is a lot to consider. Such as:

Options at the ready in Durham: Joe Boyle has made 12 starts at Triple-A Durham, and the 6-foot-8 right-hander has a nifty 1.53 ERA. He's had eight scoreless outings, and gave up just one run in two other starts. He's already proven he can handle the big stage with that Rays win over Atlanta. He's certainly just a phone call away.

Seymour seems ready, too: Ian Seymour is 6-3 with a 2.67 ERA in Durham, and he has a whopping 91 strikeouts in 67 1/3 innings. The Rays called him up for a day this week, and all he did was pitch two innings againt Boston and picked up a win in extra innings. That's quite the debut. He certainly seems ready to help out as well, and it sure helps that he's left-handed. All five guys in the Rays' rotation are right-handed.

What to make of Kyle Gibson? It seemed odd that the Rays picked up the 37-year-old journeyman after he and his 16 ERA got run out of Baltimore after three brutal starts. But he's only allowed one earned run total in three starts at Durham. Could he really be an option, too?

There were two other potential disruptions to this daily routine, but one of the seems to be off the table now that Shane McClanahan's rehab has been shut down. He's still having some nerve issues in his left arm, and the All-Star left-hander — who was hoping to be back on the mound by July after missing two full years now — will now have to wait even longer.

He's not taking anyone's rotation spot now. No one gets bumped for Shane.

The other thing that won't go away, though, is the 2025 trade deadline. When the Rays were five games under .500 and really scuffling, they looked like potential sellers at the deadline. And you know the trade deadline routine. Everybody in the race craves pitching, and the Rays have it. A lot of it.

Zack Littell is on a one-year, $5.72 million contract. He's certainly a movable piece for a team not in the race, but the Rays ARE in the race. They are the first of three wild-card teams right now, and are only 4.5 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East race. They aren't sellers right now — or at least they better not be. They better not be fading away on making a 2025 push.

Rasmussen and Pepiot are safe, with contracts and team control in place. And I just don't see the Rays giving up completely on Bradley and Baz. There's just too much talent there to be included in a trade.

But do they need a break to re-set a bit? Could they benefit from some time in the bullpen? Some time to work on some things? Maybe a different role would help, as would controlling their innings a bit. Bradley has pitched 78 2/3 innings so far, and Baz is at 70 2/3 going into Sunday's start.

Bradley pitched 104 innings in 2023 and 138 a year ago. Baz, who debuted in 2021 but only pitched six games in 2022 before needing Tommy John surgery, was brought back slowly in 2024. He only pitched 79 1/3 innings in 14 starts. He's basically at those numbers already this year in 2025.

Will that be a concern going forward? Is that something to disrupt this penciled-in rotation?

It's June 15 today and we're four weeks from the All-Star break, which is July 14-17. The trade deadline is six weeks away.

That's 14 starts in a row for this entire group, covering 70 starts. The Rays are back home this week, playing a four-game series with the Baltimore Orioles Monday through Thursday, then hosting the Detroit Tigers ove the weekened.

Will we make it through 15 starts together? Or 16?

It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I might just be barking up the wrong tree, but we'll see soon how it will all play out.

By the numbers

Here are the starters' numbers in their last four starts for the Rays:

Pitcher	Record	IP	ERA	K/W
Rasmussen	3-0	22.0	2.45	19/3
Pepiot	1-1	25.1	1.78	26/6
Littell	3-1	27.1	2.96	20/1
Bradley	0-2	22.0	6.55	23/9
Baz	2-0	21.2	4.16	17/7