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The Tampa Bay Rays are looking for a bounce back season after an uncharacteristically poor year in 2024. The Rays need to fill plenty of their holes on the roster in order to get back into the playoffs and in contention for the America League pennant, and one of those pieces will be back in star starting pitcher Shane McClanahan.
McClanahan missed all of last year after undergoing Tommy John surgery to repair an elbow injury in August of 2023 and the Rays desperately missed him in the starting rotation. McClanahan was in the running for American League Rookie of the Year in 2021 before making a late Cy Young push in 2022. He was also an All-Star in 2023 before his injury.
On Tuesday, Rays President of Baseball Operations Erik Neander went on MLB Network and confirmed that McClanahan is fully recovered and will be ready for the start of next season.
“We'll take Shane and our path is a little bit different but we found a way,” Neander said. “Shane's good to go. He exited last year with a clean bill of health, a healthy offseason and he's gonna come into camp as a healthy pitcher. So, you'll have your typical buildup and we'll get him into the year. … Probably looking at 150ish innings to kind of land on the right spot but he'll be ready to go from day one. Happy to have him back.”
McClanahan has a career record of 33-16 with a 3.02 ERA. He has struck out 456 batters in 404.2 innings for the Rays and was one of the best young starters in the MLB before he went down with the injury. If the Rays can get him back into his top form at some point during next season, they have a chance to have a very dangerous starting rotation in 2025 that could be similar to what they had when they were competing in the AL playoffs each year.
