After a disappointing 2024 season, the San Francisco Giants are going for a new look.
The team moved on from president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, appointing franchise legend Buster Posey in his place. And the team seems likely to lose their best pitcher from this season, veteran Blake Snell, to free agency.
But among all of the changes, another veteran pitcher has been predicted to return. The Athletic’s Grant Brisbee expects Robbie Ray to opt into his $25 million player option to return for 2025.
“He could probably sign a two- or three-year deal with a bigger commitment, but he could also get paid $24.9 million more than you or I will and set himself up for an even more lucrative contract after that,” Brisbee noted. “My guess is that he opts in and bets on himself.”
After missing the start of the season following Tommy John surgery in 2023, Ray made just seven starts for the Giants this season. A hamstring injury ended his debut season with the team in late August. In the starts he did make, he had a 4.70 ERA and 1.141 WHIP that were higher than his 11-year career averages.
All told, it’s hard to call the veteran’s first year in San Francisco an unqualified success. But after signing a five-year, $115 million deal with the Seattle Mariners in 2021, he has two years and $50 million remaining on his contract if he doesn’t opt out.
Ray won the American League Cy Young Award with the Toronto Blue Jays just ahead of signing that contract, pitching for a 2.84 ERA and 248 strikeouts in 32 starts. If he can recapture more of that form in 2025, he could emerge as a critical starter for the Giants.
Even as they retool around younger players for next year, it seems that Giants fans can count on Ray working toward that outcome for 2025 and 2026.
“Left-hander Robbie Ray has a player option on his five-year, $115 million contract,” Shayna Rubin reported for the San Francisco Chronicle. “He’s expected to opt into the final two years of his deal.”
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