The Rays announced that right-hander Shane Baz has been reinstated from the injured list and optioned to Triple-A Durham.
Baz, 25 next month, underwent Tommy John surgery in September of 2022 and missed the entire 2023 season. The club planned to bring him along slowly here in 2024 after that missed season and he also injured his oblique in March.
He started the season on the IL but has been rehabbing in recent weeks. He’s made four starts for Triple-A Durham this month, logging 12 innings. His most recent outing was yesterday, when he threw 76 pitches over four innings, striking out four, walking three while allowing three hits and one earned run.
The Rays could arguably use him in the majors, given the number of injuries they are dealing with in their rotation. Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Shane McClanahan all underwent elbow surgery last year and are on the shelf. They have recently been joined by Zach Eflin and Jacob Waguespack.
The current rotation consists of Aaron Civale, Taj Bradley, Zack Littell, Ryan Pepiot and Tyler Alexander. Both Civale and Alexander are struggling this year, with each having an earned run average over 5.00.
Prior to his surgery, Baz was trending towards making a significant impact for the Rays. He had a 4.02 ERA in his first nine major league starts, striking out 28.9% of batters faced while giving out walks just 7.2% of the time. His work in the minors was even more impressive, as he had a 1.68 ERA at Triple-A in 2021 and 2022, part of the reason why he’s been considered one of the top pitching prospects in the league in recent years.
Given his obvious talent, there’s a case to be made for plugging him into the rotation now. Each of Civale and Alexander have more experience, but they also have options and could be moved to Triple-A, or to a long relief role in the bullpen.
Instead, the Rays have optioned Baz to Triple-A for more work at that level. Perhaps that is a way of monitoring his workload in an environment where wins and losses don’t matter as much, which is a fair consideration. Baz hardly pitched in 2022 either due to elbow issues prior to his Tommy John surgery, so he’s several years removed from a significant innings tally. His career high is the 92 frames he tossed in 2021, which isn’t even that high for a starter and is now a few years in the rear-view mirror. He also hasn’t looked to be in good form on his rehab, with 11 walks to just eight strikeouts and an ERA of 6.00.
Though there’s some logic to keeping him in Durham and monitoring him, it will nonetheless have consequences for Baz. The righty came into this season with two years and 14 days of major league service time. Had he stayed on the active roster or injured list all season, he would have finished this year at 3.014, just enough to automatically qualify for arbitration and to be on track for free agency after 2027. If he ends up spending significant time on optional assignment, he could alter both of those trajectories, though he could still get to arb as a Super Two guy even if he’s shy of the three-year mark.
For now, he’ll continue with whatever plan the Rays have for building him up over the remainder of the season. Perhaps his return to the big leagues will be motivated by an injury to one of his teammates or it could just be based on some sort of workload checklist that Baz has to hit.