McClanahan to be Opening Day stater
McClanahan will take the bump on Opening Day for the third time in his career
The Tampa Bay Rays have named Shane McClanahan their Opening Day starter for the 2025 season when they’ll take on the Colorado Rockies on Friday, March 28th at Steinbrenner Field.
This will be McClanahan’s third time as the Rays Opening Day starter; he started in consecutive years in 2022 and 2023. He unfortunately would undergo Tommy John surgery in August of 2023, leading to him missing the entire 2024 campaign. However, the Rays ace is now back to full health and revving up to kickoff the Rays season.
The news wasn’t meant to be broken this early but Matt Silverman accidentally let it slip during the Rays Fan Fest earlier this month. With the cat out of the bag, McClanahan was able to speak to reporters about how honored he was to be given the opportunity.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know what to expect. I came into camp fighting for obviously opening day. That’s every pitcher’s goal. I kind of came to the fact that if it happens, it happens. If it’s not, you know there’s five other guys in this rotation that are more than deserving of it”
Once he makes the start on Opening Day, McClanahan will tie David Price for third most Opening Day starts in franchise history, with Chris Archer and James Shields sharing the top spot with four starts apiece.
Since being selected by the Rays with the 31st overall selection of the 2018 draft, McClanahan has developed into one of the best starting pitchers in all of baseball. Although he was never considered the top prospect in the Rays system, McClanahan has been among the best home grown players in team history. Among pitchers who came up through the Rays system, McClanahan has the 7th highest fWAR.
After making his big league debut in 2021, McClanahan has compiled a 3.02 ERA | 3.36 FIP with a 28.0 K% & 7.1 BB% over 404 2⁄3 innings pitched. McClanahan started the All-Star game for the American League in 2022, and received some consideration for the Cy Young award; prior to his injury in 2023, McClanahan received a second selection to the Mid-Summer Classic.