Three Differing Rays Relief Pitchers Battling for Bullpen Spots

If there is any team in baseball that knows what it takes to develop a successful relief staff, it is the Tampa Bay Rays.

Different looks, situational matchups, and a range of pitch velocities are the keys to a diversified, tough bullpen. As the Rays inch closer to Opening Day, they’ll look to solidify a near top-ten unit last season with fresh faces from within and outside the organization.

These three highlighted pitchers get outs with high-octane fastballs, soft contact, and hard off-speed movement that make Tampa Bay’s late-inning battery that much tougher to hit.

Alex Cook

Cook has moved with an underrated, quiet excellence in the Rays' system since being a 12th-round pick in 2022. Fangraphs ranks him 53rd overall in the organization with a 35+ future value, making him a relatively unknown name in the system.

Despite that ranking, Tampa Bay selected his contract last year over a slew of other possible names and added him to a crowded 40-man roster. Something intriguing about Cook’s arsenal has the Rays excited to give him the time and roster space needed to refine his stuff.

Cook’s game revolves around what Tampa Bay’s coaching staff specializes in when developing their arms: power stuff. It’s what they already possess at the back end of the pen with Griffin Jax and Garrett Cleavinger, but they will also need more of it. Cook can provide that added heat.

The end of last season’s campaign made the Rays feel comfortable gifting him a 40-man roster spot. As he returned from a shoulder injury, Cook readjusted to his relief role at Double-A and dominated hitters with a simple but powerful fastball/slider combination.

Though his repertoire is shallow with a third pitch changeup that doesn’t raise any eyebrows, his fastball is Major League ready, consistently sitting in the 96-98 mph range.

Paired with a sharp slider, Cook can fill in for the hole left by Manuel Rodriguez’s adeptness versus righties and be called upon in high-leverage spots.

Jake Woodford

Throughout Woodford’s career, he has never been the right fit in a team’s rotation or bullpen. With the St. Louis Cardinals, he pitched well but behind talented starters and was a fill-in more than a first choice.

After being cut by the Cardinals, he’s floundered in bottom-of-the-pack pitching organizations that haven’t figured out how to get the most out of his arm. This spring, the Tampa native received a homecoming invite to spring training and has shown night and day results from his past tough stretch.

What Woodford is going to do better than most is limit hard hits. There’s a reason the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks took a flier on an arm that can negate the hitter-friendly effects of their home ballparks.

Woodford’s off-speed offerings and the movement they generate can only be described as funky. Equipped with a sink and sweep combination, Woodford is now tinkering with the baseball’s trendiest pitch, the kick change, that’s turning heads.

Woodford’s changeup has shown tons of drop so far in spring training, along with a flatly planed fastball that offers an interesting set of different looks and tunnelling to hitters.

That added to a collection of other offspeeds that get tagged for consistently low exit velocities gives Woodford a chance to crack the Rays’ roster in a swingman role when the team needs innings filled.

Cam Booser

Not too long ago, Cleavinger was a fringe reliever unable to find a way on three different teams at 28 years old. Rays' pitching research and development focused on the power sweeper that was being underutilized to make him a top lefty reliever in the game. Cam Booser has the tools that could forecast something similar.

It’s all going to be about Booser’s sweeper that could carry his name to relevancy in this Rays’ bullpen unit. A 40% whiff rate and average exit velocity of 81 mph on Booser’s sweeper in his otherwise dreary 2025 season jumps off the page when looking for diamonds in the rough.

That sweeper, which he primarily used against lefties at a whopping 50% of the time, was incredibly effective and what helped him to an 11.5 strikeouts per nine against them last season.

A lack of supply in lefty relievers is also going to be a help to Booser’s case in trying to make the Rays’ roster out of spring training. Mason Montgomery departed in trade this offseason, while Joe Rock and Ian Seymour have the skillsets better suited for a starter.

Though he might just be a spring training invite, Booser finds himself in a wide-open opportunity for a lefty specialist role.

Ultimately, elevating the rest of his pitch mix and learning to mitigate damage against righties should determine if he can stick. If he does that, Booser has a shot to give lefty hitters fits all year long.