{"id":335921,"date":"2025-12-07T23:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T23:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/335921\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T23:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T23:28:07","slug":"rays-interested-in-zack-littell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/335921\/","title":{"rendered":"Rays Interested In Zack Littell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rays are known to be looking<\/a> to add some veteran depth to their rotation, and such former Tampa players as Zach Eflin<\/a> and Adrian Houser<\/a> are known to be<\/a> on the team\u2019s radar.\u00a0 Yet another ex-Ray is also being eyed for a reunion, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a> reports that Zack Littell<\/a> is also drawing interest from the club.<\/p>\n

Littell first arrived in Tampa in May 2023, after the Rays claimed the right-hander off waivers from the Red Sox.\u00a0 At the time, Littell had started only four of his 147 career games in parts of six Major League seasons, and had delivered inconsistent results as a reliever.\u00a0 However, in yet another win for the Rays\u2019 excellent pitching development staff, Littell went from a multi-inning reliever to a proper starter by season\u2019s end, and he then became a rotation staple over the next two seasons.<\/p>\n

Over 376 2\/3 innings in a Tampa Bay uniform, Littell posted a 3.68 ERA, 19.39% strikeout rate, and a superb 3.92% walk rate.\u00a0 Littell has had trouble keeping the ball in the park and he doesn\u2019t miss many bats, but his elite control and durability made his transition to the rotation a very successful one.\u00a0 With the Rays falling out of contention at the deadline, Littell was dealt to the Reds as part of a three-team trade<\/a> that also involved the Dodgers, and Littell had a 4.39 ERA over 53 1\/3 innings to help Cincinnati reach the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Only ten pitchers in all of baseball topped Littell\u2019s 186 2\/3 innings pitched in 2025.\u00a0 These ability to eat innings would be a major help to any rotation, but especially a Tampa Bay staff that has a few question marks behind Drew Rasmussen<\/a> and Ryan Pepiot<\/a>.\u00a0 Shane Baz<\/a> was only so-so in his first full MLB season, Ian Seymour<\/a> looked good as a rookie but has only 57 big league innings under his belt, and Shane McClanahan<\/a> hasn\u2019t pitched in over two years due to injury.\u00a0 Topkin\u2019s piece includes the positive note that McClanahan is having \u201ca somewhat normal offseason\u201d throwing progression as he recovers from the nerve issue that sidelined him for all of 2025, and the next checkpoint will come when McClanahan starts throwing off a mound in mid-January.<\/p>\n

MLB Trade Rumors ranked Littell 35th on our list of the winter\u2019s top 50 free agents<\/a>, and projected the righty for a two-year, $24MM contract.\u00a0 A three-year deal isn\u2019t out of the question since Littell is entering his age-30 season and there\u2019s plenty of value in a durable arm who can reliably cover innings, yet in terms of average annual value, Littell\u2019s asking price should remain within the Rays\u2019 limited spending range.<\/p>\n

In comparison to the other known pitching targets, Littell will cost more than Eflin or Houser, but also brings more to the table in terms of reliability.\u00a0 This could make the front office more willing to make what counts as a significant financial plunge for the Rays, though more money could be freed up by trading other players off the current roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rays are known to be looking to add some veteran depth to their rotation, and such former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99,39908],"class_list":{"0":"post-335921","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-zack-littell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}