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Tampa Bay Rays: Three Questions Following the Blake Snell Trade

By Lucas Friedman

HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: Blake Snell #4 of the Tampa Bay Rays wipes his face in the dug out after he was relieved in the fourth inning of Game 2 of the ALDS against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on October 05, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 05: Blake Snell #4 of the Tampa Bay Rays wipes his face in the dug out after he was relieved in the fourth inning of Game 2 of the ALDS against the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on October 05, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /
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Tyler Glasnow of the Rays reacts to manager Kevin Cash coming out of the dugout to take him out.
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

Three questions following the Blake Snell trade

What will the Rays’ 2021 starting rotation look like?

In 2020, starting pitching was one of the Tampa Bay Rays’ biggest strengths. The 1-2-3 punch of Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Charlie Morton proved to be lethal both in the regular and post-seasons. Furthermore, the strength of their bullpen allowed them to keep their starters fresh throughout the season, with each of those three rarely exceeding more than 5 innings pitched per start.

The combo of Snell, Glasnow, Morton, and their opener strategy that manager Kevin Cash helped pioneer to the rest of the league gave the Rays one hell of a pitching staff. This staff was able to strikeout opposing teams at a high clip, and stifled some of the league’s best offenses in the postseason.

However, Charlie Morton left to sign with the Atlanta Braves, and now Blake Snell is a Padre. That leaves just Tyler Glasnow and Michael Wacha, who they recently signed to a one-year/$3 million dollar deal.

Glasnow has proven himself more than capable of taking the mantle as the Rays’ new ace. However, he has been injury-prone so far in his young career, and has been inconsistent at times. Despite that, there should be little concern about Glasnow’s role in the Rays’ rotation.

Wacha is much more of a question mark, as he is coming off a slew of underwhelming seasons after starting off his career rather strong in St. Louis. He pitched to a 6.62 ERA in one seasons with the Mets, so the Rays were able to get him at a bargain-bin price. He is still only 29 years old, and while he too has been injury-prone, he looks like a good candidate for a classic Rays’ reclamation project.

From there, however, the Rays’ starting rotation gets much murkier. Who is going to fill that number three spot? Will Ryan Yarbrough finally have his chance to shine, or will they go out and sign another veteran to eat some innings? It could be one or the other, or both.

Which young prospects will be given a shot to compete for spots in the rotation. Brent Honeywell and Shane McClanahan seem like the most likely candidates, and now Luis Patino enters the mix after the trade with San Diego. If anything, it will be interesting to see how the Rays manage their wealth of young pitching talent this year, when it appears they will need them to produce on the MLB level sooner rather than later.

Lastly, the Tampa Bay Rays will almost certainly stick to their opener strategy in 2021. Their bullpen is still intact, and will be their biggest strength entering this season. However, you can’t roll out an opener three times per week, so the Rays are going to have to find some starters to eat up some early innings in order to hand it over to their stellar bullpen.

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