{"id":315551,"date":"2025-11-29T02:23:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315551\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T02:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T02:23:10","slug":"bullpen-can-be-strength-for-rays-even-without-pete-fairbanks-at-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315551\/","title":{"rendered":"Bullpen Can Be Strength for Rays Even Without Pete Fairbanks at Closer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Rays surprised a lot of people when they decided to decline the club option<\/a> on closer Pete Fairbanks.<\/p>\n

There were already several weaknesses on the roster that had to be addressed this offseason. Creating another one, while operating on such a tight budget, seemed like an unnecessary self-inflicted wound for the franchise.<\/p>\n

Fairbanks performed so well in 2025 that he was viewed as one of the best trade chips in baseball heading into the offseason. Alas, franchises around the league didn\u2019t want to add that kind of salary this early on, creating a predicament for the Rays.<\/p>\n

Instead of being saddled with $11 million in salary, they paid a $1 million buyout, sending Fairbanks to the free agent market.<\/p>\n

Many fans were disappointed at the move, and it is easy to see why. Finding someone who can replicate the production of their former closer will not be easy. His 0.12 clutch rating was 8th out of 19 closers in 2025, better than stars such as Jhoan Duran, Robert Suarez and Aroldis Chapman.<\/p>\n

Rays bullpen can be strength even without Pete Fairbanks\"Pete<\/p>\n

Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

However, even without him in the mix at the backend, the bullpen could actually be a strength for the team. Tampa Bay has a very talented three-headed monster to rely on at the end of games already on the roster: Edwin Uceta, Griffin Jax and Garrett Cleavinger.<\/p>\n

Uceta led the Rays with 29 shutdowns in 2025. It did take him a little while to get on track, as he led the team with 16 meltdowns last season as well. But his dominance down the stretch<\/a> built plenty of positive momentum heading into the offseason.<\/p>\n

There have been rumors swirling that the Rays could look to convert Jax into a starter this winter. That would be the wrong decision to make<\/a>. He was acquired from the Minnesota Twins ahead of the MLB trade deadline this past summer to help bolster the bullpen, and that is the role he should have.<\/p>\n

Locking him into a closer\u2019s role may not be something manager Kevin Cash wants to do, given his dynamic skill set, but he is going to factor into the high-leverage mix one way or another.<\/p>\n

Rays have strong trio to rely on in bullpen\"Edwin<\/p>\n

Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Cleavinger has had some struggles when being called upon in high-leverage situations, but has dominated in anything lower than that. If he can find more consistency when it matters most, Tampa Bay has something special with him.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget Manuel Rodriguez. He was an emerging star in the bullpen but suffered an injury that eventually required surgery. His 2026 season is going to be delayed<\/a> until the late spring or early summer, but when he is ready to return, expect him to step into an important role for the squad.<\/p>\n

There is a lot of talent to work with in this bullpen. The Rays are historically great at developing pitching talent, and it would not be a surprise if they unearthed another gem or two over the offseason and during spring training to add to the mix.<\/p>\n

If you like our content,\u00a0choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More Rays News:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Rays surprised a lot of people when they decided to decline the club option on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-315551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}