{"id":444292,"date":"2026-11-01T13:48:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T13:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444292\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T13:48:45","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T13:48:45","slug":"al-champion-rays-pick-up-20-million-option-on-ace-pitcher-drew-rasmussen-for-2027-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444292\/","title":{"rendered":"AL champion Rays pick up $20 million option on ace pitcher Drew Rasmussen for 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 The AL champion Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> exercised their $20 million option Saturday on ace pitcher Drew Rasmussen.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay picked up the 2027 club option on Rasmussen’s contract rather than pay him a $500,000 buyout. The two-time All-Star can become a free agent after next season.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen earned a $5.5 million salary this year as part of an $8.5 million, two-year deal he and the Rays agreed to in January 2025 to avoid arbitration. But the 2027 option price increased from $8 million to $20 million because Rasmussen remained healthy throughout the 2026 season and made at least 28 starts, making the contract worth $28 million over three seasons.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Rasmussen went 16-5 with a 2.67 ERA in 30 starts during the regular season, helping the Rays to an AL East title. He was 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA in five postseason starts as Tampa Bay won its third pennant.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen started Game 5 of the World Series against Milwaukee on three days’ rest and left trailing 1-0 after pitching four innings. He took the loss<\/a> as the Brewers won 4-1 to clinch their first championship.<\/a><\/p>\n

The right-hander threw 89 pitches over 3 2\/3 innings in Game 2, getting a no-decision<\/a> as Milwaukee rallied for a 5-4 victory<\/a> and a 2-0 Series lead.<\/p>\n

In his first playoff start this year, Rasmussen took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the New York Yankees and struck out 10 on the way to a 1-0 victory in the Division Series opener.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen threw a career-high 172 innings this season and 28 2\/3 more in the postseason. He has had three major elbow operations in his career, including Tommy John surgeries in 2016 and 2017 and an internal brace procedure in 2023. <\/p>\n

He is 46-22 with a 2.83 ERA in 160 major league games, including 111 starts, over seven seasons with Milwaukee and Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Rays declined mutual options on starting pitcher Nick Martinez and outfielder Cedric Mullins.<\/p>\n

Martinez, 36, had a $20 million mutual option with a $4 million buyout as part of a $13 million, one-year contract<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Mullins, 32, had a $7.5 million, one-year deal<\/a> that included a $10 million mutual option with a $500,000 buyout.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2013 The AL champion Tampa Bay Rays exercised their $20 million option Saturday on ace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[48422,84504,72086,110,202,204,203,199,201,200,97675],"class_list":["post-444292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-cedric-mullins","tag-drew-rasmussen","tag-nick-martinez","tag-sports","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tommy-john"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}