Top 5 biggest agreements for the Tampa Bay Rays on Arbitration Day

Major League Baseball had its big arbitration day in which the team and players agreed on numbers for contracts ahead of the 2024 season. Going into the day, Tampa Bay had 10 arbitration players and was able to come to agreements with eight of those, leading to a successful day with lots of big-time players setting their salaries. Here are the top five names that are coming back to the Rays without any financial issues. As for the other two? Best of luck in the courtroom, and no hard feelings.

5. Shawn Armstrong - $2.05 million

The first name on the list is Shawn Armstrong. The 33-year-old right-hander will come back to St. Pete as arguably one of the best arms out of the bullpen. He comes off of an astounding 2023 season with a 1.39 ERA in 52 innings pitched.

The impressive stuff about Armstrong is how often he gets opposing batters to chase out of the zone. His percentage stayed high from 2022 at 34%, which is the 96th percentile of the MLB. This led to 54 strikeouts, which was efficient for the number of innings he pitched.

If he continues to play like he has the past few years, expect Armstrong to continue to be one of the highly used players in the bullpen.