The departures of Ryan Yarbrough and Corey Kluber left some holes to fill for Tampa Bay in their starting rotation. Well, on Dec. 1, the Rays signed former Philadelphia Phillies starter Zach Eflin to a three-year, $40 million deal. It is the largest deal given to a free agent in franchise history.
In 2022, Eflin started 13 games with the Phillies and finished with a record of 3-5 and the second lowest season era of his career (4.04). He also had 65 strikeouts and gave up just eight home runs in 75.2 innings pitched.
Elfin is a traditional breaking-ball pitcher with explosive speed coming out of his pitches. His cutter clocks in on average at around 90 mph. His changeup and slider also have very high speeds at 87 and 86 mph respectively.
The majority of the pitches Eflin throws is a sinker with a right to left downward break. He also throws a curveball with a lot of sinking action a lot of the times as well. All of these breaking pitches combined with a mid-nineties fastball reminds me of the way Shane McClanahan pitches. If Eflin can keep the hit count down (70 hits in 75.2 innings), he can be a dangerous addition to the Rays stable.