Griffin Jax Is Becoming the Rays’ Latest Pitching Success Story

The Tampa Bay Rays have done it again. 

The organization continues to find failed prospects with other teams and turn their careers around. It's no different for right-hander Griffin Jax. 

After starting the year with an 8.00 ERA as a reliever, the Rays had an idea to revive his career. They converted him back to a starter, and since then, he has been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Over his last two starts, Jax has only allowed one earned run across 10 innings of work, pushing his ERA as a starter to 1.42 across his past 19 innings. 

Jax, who was traded to Tampa Bay at the 2025 MLB trade deadline from the Minnesota Twins, for starting pitcher Taj Bradley, are finally starting to show that the deal is working in favor of Eric Neander and the Rays. 

Jax is only one of many success stories that have happened over the years in the Rays organization, turning failed performances from other teams into success in Tampa Bay. Currently, one of three pitchers in the Rays' starting rotation is showing some of the best stats of their entire career 

The former Twins pitcher joins Shane McClanahan, who's having a resurgence after missing almost two seasons of work due to injury, and Nick Martinez, who is a top candidate for American League Cy Young, as we get closer to the midway point of the season. Adding these three pitchers to the rest of the Rays' successful rotation has been a big reason why the team is currently leading the entire American League and holds a three-and-a-half game lead on the American League East division before they begin one of their most important road trips of the year thus far. 

The Rays are off Thursday, but will begin a six-game division road trip beginning in the Bronx against the New York Yankees on Friday. They will finish their road trip against the Baltimore Orioles before heading back home next week. This six-game stretch could certainly put the Rays way ahead in the standings and push the Tampa Bay front office to add more to the successful team to ensure a deep postseason run.