The Tampa Bay Rays are hoping to have a strong offseason and bounce back from what was a tough second half of the year in 2025.
Despite a strong start to the campaign, the Rays fell apart a bit in the second half of the season in 2025. This was a team that was right in the mix in the American League at the start of the year but struggled quite a bit during the summer.
With things looking bleak in terms of making the postseason, Tampa Bay understandably moved some of their players at the trade deadline. However, they did elect to hold on to a couple of veterans who could have potentially been moved.
Recently, the team elected to shockingly not pick up the team option on closer Pete Fairbanks, making the right-hander a free agent. Now, he will be joining one other pitcher from the team, who is already a free agent.
Kiley McDaniel of ESPN recently predicted that Rays free agent pitcher Adrian Houser would receive a two-year, $20 million deal in free agency this winter.
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It was a bit of a tale of two seasons for the right-hander of the Rays in 2025. To start the year with the Chicago White Sox, Houser was very impressive. He totaled a 6-2 record and 2.10 ERA in 11 starts prior to joining Tampa Bay.
Unfortunately, after being acquired by the Rays, he didn’t perform up to that same level. In 10 starts with Tampa Bay, he totaled a 2-3 record and 4.79 ERA. As primarily a ground ball pitcher, Houser is never going to light up the scoreboard with high strikeout numbers, but he was able to have a strong campaign in 2025.
As a free agent this winter, he should have a reasonably decent market, and getting a multi-year deal is going to be possible. There was a significant improvement in his velocity on his sinker after making some adjustments, and there is reason to believe that he can be a solid fourth or fifth starter for a team.
For the Rays, they are in need of a veteran like Houser in the starting rotation, and at the predicted $10 million per year mark, that could be affordable enough for them to retain him. However, he didn’t pitch nearly as well in Tampa Bay as he did in Chicago, and it will be interesting to see if that impacts their potential interest.