The Rays have had an excellent first six weeks. Last night’s series-opening win over the Blue Jays was their fourth in a row and 10th in their last 11. They’re up to a 22-12 record that has them behind only the Yankees in the American League.
Tampa Bay’s rotation has played a key role in their success. Rays starters have a 3.16 earned run average that ranks third in MLB behind the Yankees’ and Dodgers’ rotations. Each of Drew Rasmussen, Shane McClanahan and offseason signees Nick Martinez and Steven Matz have been good to excellent.
The Rays ideally would have had Ryan Pepiot to complete their starting five. He’s instead going to lose the entire season to a hip injury that required surgery. That leaves the fifth spot up for grabs, and the Rays are building up a pair of relievers as rotation candidates.
Griffin Jax has opened his two most recent appearances. They weren’t true “starts,” as he was pulled by design in the third inning of each. Jax, who told MLB.com’s Adam Berry in late April that he and the team were discussing a potential rotation move, built up to 45 pitches across 2 2/3 frames on Saturday against the Giants. It was his highest pitch count in an appearance since 2022. In each of the last two outings, Jax has mixed in a cutter against left-handed batters. He’d tinkered with that pitch at the end of the 2025 season but hadn’t used it this year until he started to build up.
It’s not an entirely unfamiliar role. Jax was a starter throughout his minor league career and started 14 of 18 appearances as a rookie for the Twins in 2021. He struggled to a 6.37 ERA that season and moved fully to the bullpen in year two. Jax’s strikeout and ground-ball rates skyrocketed in shorter stints. He emerged as a high-leverage reliever whom the Twins flipped to Tampa Bay for former top pitching prospect Taj Bradley last summer.
Jax isn’t the only Rays pitcher building into a potential starting role. Mason Englert, who has come out of the bullpen for all but three of his 81 MLB appearances, is doing the same (link via Marc Topkin of The Tampa Bay Times). Englert is currently on the 15-day injured list after feeling seemingly minor forearm soreness in mid-April. The Rays are sending him to Triple-A Durham on a rehab assignment this week and will use that time to build him up as a starter.
The Rays acquired Englert from the Tigers over the 2024-25 offseason. He hasn’t started regularly since he was in Double-A. That’s partially due to his status as a Rule 5 pick, as the Tigers needed to keep him on the MLB roster for his entire rookie season (2023) to secure his long-term rights. Englert had barely pitched above A-ball at the time, and it’s easier for teams to shield Rule 5 picks as low-leverage bullpen arms than it is to keep developing them as starters at the MLB level.
Englert has middling career numbers but is coming off a solid year in which he threw 44 2/3 innings of 3.83 ERA ball with slightly better than average strikeout and walk rates. He has a five-pitch mix headlined by a changeup that he’ll throw to batters of either handedness. Englert had relatively neutral platoon splits last season. He has very little experience turning a lineup over multiple times, but he has a deep enough arsenal that he should be able to compete with left-handed hitters.
Pitchers can spend up to 30 days on a rehab assignment. Englert also still has a minor league option if the Rays wanted to continue building him in Triple-A beyond that. He made a spot start earlier this year and threw 65 pitches, though, so it might only take a couple minor league starts before the Rays feel comfortable letting him throw at least 80-90 pitches in an MLB game.
None of that is to say that either Jax or Englert are guaranteed to hold rotation roles. The Rays have long valued flexibility on the pitching staff. They could use either pitcher as openers and/or as tandem starters or decide they’re better fits as 2-3 inning arms out of the bullpen. Jesse Scholtens and Joe Boyle (rehabbing from an elbow strain) have more starting experience at the MLB level. Tampa Bay has had some success with mid-career reliever to starter moves, however. Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs and Zack Littell were all reasonably well established middle relievers who built up as successful starters during previous seasons.
