Drew Smyly and the Rays went through with an arbitration hearing Wednesday and the ruling just came down in favor of the left-hander, awarding him a $3.75 million salary for 2016.
Tampa Bay had countered at $3.2 million and the case was presented in front of a trio of arbitrators in Arizona who felt Smyly’s request was more reasonable.
Smyly was very effective last season with a 3.11 ERA and 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings, but he was limited to just 12 starts by a shoulder injury. He’s gone with the rest-and-rehab route rather than surgery, so the Rays will likely handle Smyly’s workload very carefully this season. He’s under team control through 2018.