Top five starting pitchers in Rays history

The team has a way with pitchers

I did the Mets top five starting pitchers first because it was easy. And then I did the Rockies next because it was difficult. Wanting to give AL teams equal time, it’s time to look at an even younger franchise than Colorado in the Tampa Bay Rays. The team changed its name from the Devil Rays to the Rays in 2008. That ended up being more meaningful than one might have thought as prior to the name change, the Devil Rays had a miserable 645–972 record for a .399 winning percentage.

Since the dropping of ‘Devil’ the Rays are 1,491-1,242 as of June 26 (for a .546 winning percentage. Maybe there’s more to this name thing than we thought? Anyway, on to the Rays best starting pitchers that had at least five years with the team. In recent years I have perceived the Rays as not only resourceful, competing well with higher spending teams in the AL East, but also pitching rich. The team is playing extremely well so far in 2025 despite playing home games at Steinbrenner Field while their stadium is repaired from hurricane damage. Yet the Rays don’t always hold onto their good pitchers and need to constantly re-tool, something they do very effectively. Being a Rays starting pitcher for five seasons has quite a few qualifiers but only a few slam-dunks.

The easy ones

David Price was the first name that came to my mind and then James ‘Big Game’ Shields. Both hold a solid number of Rays pitching records. Blake Snell was very good for the Rays, but my recollection is he was not there that long. Then it gets tougher.

Price has the most bWAR, lowest ERA, lowest WHIP and best won-loss record. He’s third in career strikeouts by a Rays pitcher and started the third most games as a Ray. James Shields is the guy that started the most games as a Ray with 217 (Price had 170 starts as a Ray). Shields has the most wins as a Ray (87) with Price 2^nd at 82. Shields has the most complete games (13) and has the most shutouts with eight as a Ray. I doubt that pitchers will have eight shutouts for a career going forward!

Remember Chris Archer and one of the best trades in Rays history?

The guy that is easy to forget and was a pretty good Rays pitcher is Chris Archer. I had completely forgotten that Chris Archer struck out more than 200 batters in three consecutive seasons as a Ray from 2015-17 with a high of 252 in 2015. He was a guy who took the ball as a starter 32+ times in four straight seasons 2014-2017 leading MLB in two of those seasons. Archer is 36 now and last pitched for the Twins in 2022.

Lefty Scott Kazmir famously (or infamously if you are a Mets fan) was traded to the Rays for Victor Zambrano, who was the other Zambrano as his brother Carlos was a much better pitcher and great a hitting pitcher as well when that meant something. Kazmir started 144 games for the Rays and has a winning record (55-44) with the team. He led MLB in strikeouts with 239 in 2007 when the team was still known as the Devli Rays. Kazmir also led MLB in bases-on-balls in 2006.

Another one that got away

Blake Snell pitched for five seasons with the Rays starting 108 games. That’s more than I would have guessed. His outlier 2018 Cy Young season saw him with a 7.1 bWAR which is 61% of his career 11.6 bWAR with the Rays. Snell allowed the fewest hits per nine innings and has the lowest adjusted ERA+ in team history. When he was good, he was very, very, good.

Are there any others worth mentioning?

Jake Odorizzi made 124 starts as a Ray placing him fifth in team history and is sixth in innings pitched. Meh. How about Alex Cobb? I have never been a huge fan of Cobb’s, but he had six years early in his career years that were better than I thought as he sported a record of 48-35 and had more than 20 starts four times.

Matt Moore was better as a Ray than he was anywhere else, and he had a couple of good years out of his six seasons as a Ray, but it wasn’t as good as I remember. While he has a winning record of 39-28 with Tampa, his 5.4 bWAR over six seasons is thoroughly unremarkable. Moore did have a nice regular season in 2013 but had a bad start in the 2013 ALDS vs. the eventual champion Red Sox.

Tyler Glasnow – now a Dodger was also a Rays starter for six seasons making 71 starts over that period which includes the 2020 pandemic season. His problem with the Rays was one of availability, something that continues to plague him and now plagues the Dodgers.

How I would rank the top five starters in Rays history

David Price

James Shields

Scott Kazmir

Blake Snell

Chris Archer

The also-rans performed well, and I’d be fine if one of the also-rans knocked out Archer. I haven’t figured out which team to do next and am open to suggestion!

About the Author: Mark Kolier along with his son Gordon co-hosts a baseball podcast called ‘Almost Cooperstown’. He also has written baseball-related articles that can be accessed on Medium.com and now Substack.com.