Tampa Bay Rays May Have Added To Rotation By Dipping Into Bullpen

Leave it to the Rays Way. Versatility has long been preferred among position players and pitchers. The organization acquires players who may be asked, often sooner than later, to embrace a new role. For righthanded pitcher Griffin Jax, his immediate future could have him returning to a role he was once very familiar with.

Jax started the Rays’ 4-2 win Sunday afternoon at Tropicana Field against the Twins, the team that drafted him a decade ago out of the Air Force Academy. He went through Minnesota’s system as a starting pitcher. That changed, at least temporarily, when he was summoned to the parent club and made his MLB debut in June 2021.

Then-manager Rocco Baldelli used Jax in a long relief role at first, though injuries prompted the skipper to put him in the rotation, and make 14 starts through the end of the season. The results were not good as Jax went 3-5 with a 6.10 ERA and allowed 18 homers in 69 1/3 innings. He went to the bullpen in 2022 and became an effective setup man.

In his role Sunday as the Rays’ opener, something he did twice in 2025 after being acquired for Taj Bradley at the trade deadline, Jax cruised through 2 1/3 innings allowing only two baserunners, one of which was erased by a double-play grounder. His 33 pitches were the most in an outing since he threw as many in a pair of 2023 relief assignments with the Twins.

Griffin Jax may have something to build on

Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash was pleased with what he saw in his 31-year-old pitcher against Minnesota.

“He’s really good and he’s going to be good for us,” he said. “We found out years ago that sometimes you can re-set yourself a little bit, and he seems to understand that.”

Jesse Scholtens followed Jax and got the decision in the Rays’ win, which enabled them to sweep a weekend series. Each of Scholtens’ four appearances for the Rays this season, including one start, have been at least 4 1/3 innings in duration. That was his length in relief of Jax before Cole Sulser and Bryan Baker took care of the rest with the latter recording his sixth save.

Scholtens was called up from Triple-A Durham on April 11 when Joe Boyle (right elbow strain) was placed on the injured list. Boyle was promoted two days before the season opener when Ryan Pepiot (hip inflammation) was shelved. The potential result of such early season rotation maneuvering is Jax becoming a starter once again.

“We are going to talk about it,” said Cash. “We have a lot to discuss for sure, but could not be happier with how (Jax) got through two-and-one-third.”

Jax, who pitched for Team USA in this year’s World Baseball Classic, is certainly open to such dialog.

“I think (Sunday) was an example of what it looks like, and we’ll see where it ends up,” said the son of former Dallas Cowboys’ and Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals’ offensive lineman, Garth Jax.

Including his two opening assignments, Jax made 23 appearances for the Rays after last summer’s trade and had mixed results (0-2, one blown save, 3.60 ERA). He had a rough start to this season by taking a pair of losses and allowing five earned runs in his first four outings. He has since largely turned the tables with Sunday serving as the highlight and in a role that he could once again fulfill.

“It’s just a different mindset,” Jax said, of starting. “If you’re going in from the start of the game, it just allows you to (pitch) a little bit more freely and just be in more of attack mode and force them to hit (the pitch).”