{"id":120911,"date":"2026-04-29T23:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=120911"},"modified":"2026-04-29T23:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:21:20","slug":"emergence-of-bryan-baker-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/29\/emergence-of-bryan-baker-rays\/","title":{"rendered":"The Emergence Of Bryan Baker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether he’s labeled a “closer,” a “relief ace,” or a “high-leverage arm.” One thing is certain with Bryan Baker<\/a>: he’s been elite in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Emergence of Bryan Baker<\/h2>\n

While many folks are (rightfully) focusing on Mason Miller<\/a>, Baker is having a tremendous start to the season. The former Oriole has a 3.18 ERA and an xERA of 2.21, suggesting potential for even better results.<\/p>\n

Baker was an 11th-round pick by the Rockies in 2016 from the University of North Florida. He was sent to Toronto in 2018 before making his debut in 2021.<\/p>\n

The Orioles then claimed him off waivers in November of that year, and he’s been in the majors ever since. The Rays traded a competitive balance draft pick for the righty in July of last season.<\/p>\n

The team has since traded for the player the Orioles selected with that pick, Slater de Brun.<\/a><\/p>\n

But how have the Rays gotten to the point where the former Oriole is their best reliever<\/a>? Well, unfortunately, it’s been many things, but mostly injuries.<\/p>\n

What’s Happened To The Rest of the Bullpen?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Garret Cleavinger<\/a> and Edwin Uceta<\/a> are both on the injured list. The former is expected to be back sooner than the latter, but it could take time to get back into the swing of things.<\/p>\n

Another reason for Baker’s elevation in status has been Griffin Jax’s severe underperformance. For whatever reason, Jax has been walking hitters and giving up hard contact at a shockingly high rate. This has led to the former Twin to have a FIP of 6.57.<\/p>\n

Not great; the Rays have other options, but none quite as good as Baker. Thus, Baker needs to step into this larger role.<\/p>\n

How’s Baker’s Pitching Differently Than Last Season?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For one thing, and perhaps most importantly, Baker doesn’t throw his slider nearly as much. Last year, he was using it nearly a quarter of the time. This season? An 8% usage rate.<\/p>\n

His changeup and fastball are his bread-and-butter pitches. Both are used over 45% of the time.<\/p>\n

His changeup has been devastating, with a 45% whiff rate. But his fastball has seen the biggest jump in performance. Last year, guys had a .355 wOBA off the pitch, while this year it’s been an impressive .218.<\/p>\n

All of this has led to a massive jump in success rates across the board. Strikeout rates up, walk rates down, chase and whiff rates up. All of his quality-of-contact marks have dropped drastically.<\/p>\n

And this is a case study in why blind reliance on stuff and the best idea might not be. His slider graded out as above average throughout his career, much higher than his fastball.<\/p>\n

Not to totally dismiss the metric, as it’s useful when used in the proper context. But Baker has almost ditched the pitch entirely, much to his benefit.<\/p>\n

Where Does Baker Fit into the Plans When Everyone Is Healthy?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At this point, it’d be difficult to demote him from his “closer” role. Pete Fairbanks has served in this position for the past couple of seasons. The Rays aren’t a traditional team, but having a designated 9th-inning guy frees up other arms for different scenarios.<\/p>\n

Plus, the truth is Baker has been one of their more valuable players in 2026<\/a>. He could very easily make a run at an All-Star selection. The likely scenario is that he fills that Fairbanks role while everyone else slots into other “high-leverage” arms.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, he can continue to perform at this level. Because he’s only 22nd in reliever fWAR up to this point, a ranking that could change with more of the same moving forward. And if so, the Rays could have another reliever success story to add to their lengthy resume.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: David Richard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether he’s labeled a “closer,” a “relief ace,” or a “high-leverage arm.” One thing is certain with Bryan Baker: he’s been elite in 2026. The Emergence of Bryan Baker While many folks are (rightfully) focusing on Mason Miller, Baker is having a tremendous start to the season. The former Oriole has a 3.18 ERA and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5777,"featured_media":120940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1071],"tags":[5788],"class_list":["post-120911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rays","category-mlb","tag-bryan-baker"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5777"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120911"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120943,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120911\/revisions\/120943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}