Red Sox Rival Lets Pitcher Enter Free Agency With Option Decline

An American League East club put another prominent pitcher on the open market Thursday.

The Tampa Bay Rays declined Peter Fairbanks’ $11 million club option for 2026, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Their closer from the last three seasons is now a free agent.

This would be a surprising move coming from most other clubs. Fairbanks has posted a 2.98 ERA in seven seasons with the Rays, and he delivered a 2.83 ERA and 27 saves in a career-high 60 1/3 innings during the 2025 campaign.

Yet the Rays are a notoriously frugal franchise that had MLB’s fifth-lowest team payroll in 2025. Yandy Díaz is currently slated to be their highest-paid player next year at $12 million.

A lengthy injury history may have also scared away Tampa Bay. Fairbanks, who turns 32 in December, hadn’t pitched more than 45 1/3 innings in a season before 2025.

The rejected deal nearly matches the $10.75 million the Red Sox gave Aroldis Chapman last offseason. Kenley Jansen, Tommy Kanhle and Phil Maton were among the relievers to take a cheaper one-year deal, so the Rays may think they can find a better bargain to replace Fairbanks.

Even if the Rays had accepted the option, Fairbanks would have entered the winter as a likely trade candidate. The Rays bolstered their bullpen by acquiring Griffin Jax on July 31, and they have some promising young (and cost-controlled) relievers in Edwin Uceta, Mason Montgomery and Hunter Bigge.

Fairbanks joins an already crowded group of free-agent relievers. Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams and Robert Suarez headline the available late-inning options.