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

On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays made numerous arbitration deals to maintain players on their roster. Here are the biggest names returning to St. Pete because of it in 2024.

Tampa Bay Rays v New York Yankees
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4. Aaron Civale - $4.09 million

Aaron Civale
Tampa Bay Rays v Toronto Blue Jays | Vaughn Ridley/GettyImages

Civale will be ready for Year 2 in Tampa Bay after coming to the team in a trade at the 2023 deadline with the Cleveland Guardians. He was added to a starting rotation that needed reinforcement with many pitchers out, and the results the Rays got were pretty promising for a full and productive 2024. 

In 45.1 innings, he put up a 5.36 ERA with a high 58 strikeouts. This is the same amount as he had last year with Cleveland, but he pitched 30 more innings with them. The higher strikeouts came from a good chase rate of 30% ,which is characteristic of other Rays pitchers. He also is a heavy breaking ball pitcher with a lot of curves and cutters. He did not walk a lot of batters in St. Pete either (11).

Civale's return is big for a Tampa Bay rotation that will still suffer from injuries at least at the start of 2024. He is set to be one of the main starters.

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