Shane

McClanahan

According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, McClanahan will make $3.6 million once again. That’s what he earned each of the last two years as part of a $7.2 million contract signed when he was first eligible for arbitration as a Super Two player in 2024. Of course, he hasn’t pitch in the majors since, having undergone Tommy John prior to the deal and then going down with a nerve issue as he completed his TJ rehab last spring. McClanahan is expected to be fully back for spring training. He’ll have one more year of arbitration eligibility in 2027.

Rodríguez is likely to miss most of all of 2026 after Tommy John surgery in August, but everyone else here should be good to go in the spring. That includes McClanahan, who underwent surgery to address his nerve issues in August.

McClanahn was making his return from Tommy John surgery this past season when he was sidelined in the spring with a nerve issue in his triceps. He tried to rest and rehab his way back from it a couple of times before opting for season-ending surgery in August. Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said, “Our expectation right now is that he will be fully ready for camp and good to go as a healthy pitcher, that the additional months of time should allow the nerve to have whatever time is required to heal and then some.” Obviously, there will continue to be risk with draft McClanahan until we see a stretch of healthy innings from him, but he remains a top-15 overall starter in baseball when healthy, so it’s good news that we might see him healthy and on the mound as soon as spring training starts.

Rays’ skipper Kevin Cash told reporters on Monday that there’s no guarantee that this procedure will fix the issue that McClanahan has been dealing with, it sounds like it’s just the first step that they’re taking to try to address it. He’s officially out for the remainder of the 2025 season and the start of his 2026 campaign is in obvious jeopardy at the moment as well.

Cash clarified that McClanahan is being pulled back temporarily due to fatigue — not a recurrence of the triceps issue that sidelined him at the end of spring training. The 28-year-old former fantasy ace experienced diminished velocity in his most recent rehab outing last Friday for Triple-A Durham and later voiced frustration with his recovery process on social media, while reiterating his desire to make it back quickly. With the clock ticking, McClanahan needs to start showing tangible progress soon if he hopes to pitch for Tampa Bay this season.

This latest development comes on the heels of a disastrous rehab start last Friday where McClanahan experienced diminished velocity and recorded just two outs for Triple-A Durham. The 28-year-old, who has been on the shelf since spring training due to a triceps issue, is running out of time to make it back to Tampa Bay this season and can’t really afford another lengthy setback. There should be a definitive update on his status later this week regarding whether he’ll make another rehab start or be shut down from throwing.

Not great. McClanahan averaged just 91 mph on his fastball and didn’t make it out of the first inning during his second rehab start at the Triple-A level, throwing just 27 pitches in the process. The 28-year-old former fantasy ace is probably going to need a handful of additional tune-up outings, mostly to build up his pitch count and stamina, before he’s ready to rejoin Tampa Bay’s rotation.

The left-hander also struck out three and didn’t walk anybody while throwing 23 of his 36 pitches for strikes. The command is the biggest thing here, and McClanahan seemed to be more than able to fill up the zone. His breaking pitches had plenty of movement and generated a handful of swings and misses, which is also nice to see. His fastball sat just 94 mph, but this was his first rehab appearance, so we assume that number will tick up as he continues to ramp up. We’d expect a few more starts for McClanahan at Triple-A, with an early August return looking likely. It’s probably time ot stash him in leagues where he was dropped.

Here we go. McClanahan kicked off his extended rehab assignment earlier this week with a scoreless frame in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League. The 28-year-old former fantasy ace will need a few additional outings to build up his pitch count and stamina before making his season debut, likely in early August. He’s been on the shelf since spring training recovering from triceps inflammation and hasn’t pitched in the majors since undergoing Tommy John surgery back in 2023.

He walked one and struck out one. If all goes well, McClanahan could return for the final two months of the season after spending the next few weeks building up in the minors. He’s been out since the spring with left triceps inflammation.