Rays extend Rasmussen

[G-Snarls]

CBS Sports:

 

The Rays and Rasmussen avoided arbitration Tuesday by agreeing to a two-year, $8 million contract extension, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.

 

The deal also includes an $8 million club option for 2027 which could escalate to as high as $20 million if Rasmussen reaches all of his health and innings pitched incentives. There's a $500,000 buyout attached to the option, so the right-hander is guaranteed a total of $8.5 million with the extension. Rasmussen looked sharp in 2024 in his return from an internal brace procedure, holding a 2.83 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 35:6 K:BB over 28.2 innings. He is expected to return to the rotation full-time in 2025, although he will have significant workload restrictions in place after totaling just 80.2 frames since the start of the 2023 season.

[G-Snarls]

He was only projected to get 2M in arb this year. 

 

And everyone knows the Rays won't be keeping him if that option year reaches 20M.