Rays lock up another key arm in Fairbanks

ST. PETERSBURG -- Two days after signing left-hander Jeffrey Springs to a four-year extension, the Rays locked up another key arm.

Tampa Bay signed high-leverage reliever Pete Fairbanks to a three-year, $12 million contract extension that includes a club option for 2026, the club announced on Friday. The deal covers Fairbanks’ three arbitration-eligible seasons, and the option would cover his first year of free agency.

Fairbanks, 29, will be paid $11 million over the next three seasons, earning $3.66 million each year. The club option, which comes with a $1 million buyout, is worth $7 million guaranteed and could escalate to $11 million through incentives. The total value of the contract is $24.6 million if his option is exercised, performance escalators are reached and award bonuses are triggered.

“Pete has really shown that he can be a dominant force in our bullpen, a dominant reliever that you want to use at the end of games,” general manager Peter Bendix said. “Pitching and defense, and especially our bullpen, has been a strength of ours, and [we] hope that it will stay that way and envision Pete being a really big part of that moving forward."

The Rays had been set to go to an arbitration hearing with Fairbanks after the two parties found themselves $400,000 apart before the deadline to exchange salary figures earlier this month; Fairbanks filed at $1.9 million, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported, with the club coming in at $1.5 million. The Rays still have five potential hearings (down from seven after the Springs and Fairbanks extensions), with Yandy Díaz, Harold Ramirez, Colin Poche, Ryan Thompson and Jason Adam.

Bypassing the arbitration process is a “big plus” of signing the deal, Fairbanks said, but more important was his comfort with the Rays.

“To be able to lock it in in a place and a destination that I have been vocal about to peers through the organization that this is someplace that I really, really want to be -- I think that to have both of those come together is a great thing,” Fairbanks said.

Fairbanks didn’t pitch for the Rays last season until July 17 due to a torn lat muscle he sustained during Spring Training, but the hard-throwing reliever was practically untouchable the rest of the season. The right-hander gave up three runs in his first two appearances, then pitched 22 consecutive scoreless innings, a streak during which he allowed only nine hits (all singles) and three walks while striking out 36 of the 77 batters he faced.

“We saw, especially last year, just how dominant he can be and just, when he's locked in, there's nobody in baseball who stands a chance against him,” Bendix said. “And he's really made himself into that."

Fairbanks' season came to a bizarre end in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Series, when he was forced to exit after walking the only two batters he faced due to numbness in his fingers. He said that was the result of Raynaud’s disease, which is typically triggered by cold weather, but it has not affected his offseason throwing program and isn’t a concern for him moving forward.

There is some risk for the Rays with this deal, as Fairbanks has dealt with injuries in the past. He has had Tommy John surgery twice, made two trips to the injured list in 2021 due to shoulder issues and sat out more than half of last season due to the lat injury.

But Fairbanks has been excellent for the Rays when healthy, posting a 2.98 ERA with 146 strikeouts in 105 2/3 innings over 111 appearances since Tampa Bay acquired him from Texas for Nick Solak in July 2019. Last season his fastball averaged 99 mph, and his slider produced a 30.8 percent whiff rate.

If anything, seeing Fairbanks work through his injuries -- and continue to get better -- only enhanced the Rays’ respect for him as a person and their belief in him as a pitcher.

“To kind of emerge on the other side of that as, in our opinion, one of the best relievers in baseball is really a testament to him and his work ethic in addition to his talent,” Bendix said. “There's a lot of people who are very talented and would go through the things that Pete went through and wouldn't be able to come out the other side as such a strong pitcher and great person and great teammate, like Pete is.”