The 40-41 Rays are one of many key teams to keep an eye on as the trade deadline draws near. While theyre buried in the American League East and unlikely to close their current 10.5-game deficit, theyre also only four games out of the final American League Wild Card spot. At the same time, Tampa Bay could soon find itself with a growing number of big league starters more than it has room to plug into its rotation. that Tampa Bay is anticipating righty and left-hander will be ready to rejoin the rotation before long; both pitchers are on the mend from Tommy John surgery Bazs performed in late 2022 and Springs performed early last season. Baz already completed a minor league rehab a signment and has continued building up in Triple-A. D'Angelo Russell Jersey Once regarded as perhaps the top pitching prospect in the game, the 25-year-old Baz got out to a rough start during his rehab stint but has now rattled off five starts with a 1.57 ERA and 35-to-10 K/BB ratio in 23 innings. Springs has been on rehab for several weeks as well but has yet to pitch more than 2 1/3 innings in an outing. Prior to his Tommy John procedure, the now-31-year-old Springs had emerged as the latest in a long line of diamond-in-the-rough pitching finds for the Rays. Tampa Bay Springs and righty in a trade that sent catching prospect to Boston. At the time, Springs was a journeyman lefty whod posted a 5.42 ERA over three partial big league seasons. With the Rays, he broke out to the tune of a 2.53 ERA, 29.5% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate in 196 innings. Tampa Bay rewarded that breakout but Springs unfortunately went under the knife just three starts into the 2023 campaign. With that pair of arms on the mend to say nothing of righty , who underwent an internal brace procedure just under one year ago the Rays indeed have a mounting stock of arms. The Athletic trio notes in their report that of the teams current starters , , , and Civale and Littell are the likeliest to be available in trades. Both pitchers are in their second year of arbitration eligibility and controlled through the 2025 season. Civale, whom the Rays acquired last summer in a trade sending first base prospect to the Guardians, is earning $4.9MM this year. Littell, yet another product of the Rays almost comical hidden-gem factory (he was claimed off waivers from Boston), is earning just $1.8MM. Of the two, Littell is enjoying the stronger season but also has the shorter track record. Hes pitched 86 1/3 innings of 4.17 ERA ball with a roughly average 22% strikeout rate against an exceptional 4.3% walk rate. Since the Rays took the former starter-turned-reliever and plugged him back into a rotation role last July, hes given them 27 starts with a 3.98 earned run average, 20.2% strikeout rate and even more impre sive 3.6% walk rate. (I earlier this season in a piece for .) Civales time with the Rays hasnt gone as the team had hoped when acquiring him last year. Hes posted strong strikeout and walk rates alike, but his sharp K-BB profile has been undercut by a penchant for serving up home runs. The 29-year-old righty has started 26 games for Tampa Bay dating to last summers trade but logged a disappointing 5.26 ERA. Despite upping his strikeout rate from 21.1% with the Guards to 25.4% with the Rays and maintaining his terrific command (6.1% walk rate in Cleveland; 6.2% with Tampa Bay), Civales ERA has spiked from 3.77 with his former club to 5.26 with his current one. After yielding 1.19 homers per nine frames in five seasons with Cleveland, Civale has been tagged for a troubling 1.56 big flies per nine since heading to St. Petersburg. There hasnt been a major change in Civales repertoire thats clearly prompted that flaw. Hes throwing more sliders this year at the expensive of his cutter, but its not an overwhelming change in usage rates and the righty is still using the same blend of six pitches (four-seam, cutter, sinker, slider, curveball and the very occasional splitter) that he used late in his Guardians tenure. His velocity has held up as well. Despite Civales struggles this season, thered be no shortage of teams interested in adding him and/or Littell to their staff for the next season and a half. Both arms are affordable particularly for teams with CBT concerns and there established rotation arms in general will be in short supply. Thats all the more true given recent injuries to trade candiates , and . The leaguewide arm shortage could position the Rays to deal from their current rotation and then replace whichever starter is traded with an in-house arm thats returning from injury. Darragh McDonald and I , also touching on the po sibility of the Rays drawing interest in right-hander Zach Eflin. Hes arguably more important to the teams staff than either Civale or Littell, but hes also the most expensive starter on the roster. Eflin inked a three-year, $40MM deal in free agency prior to the 2023 season. Its a heavily backloaded pact that will pay Eflin $18MM in 2025 a hefty number by the Rays typically thrifty standards. With Springs, Baz and Rasmu sen all on the mend and able to join young arms like Baz, Bradley and Pepiot in next years rotation, the always cost-conscious Rays will presumably be open to listen on Eflin while pondering a similar gamut to the Littell/Civale scenario laid out in The Athletics report. It bears emphasizing that even if the Rays end up selling or, as they often have in the past, operating on both the buy and sell side of the market Sammon, Woo and Mooney report that the front office is not interested in a large-scale rebuild. Even if the Rays fall out of the 2024 race, the plan will be to reload and take aim and contending again in 2025. Given the wealth of young and/or cost-controlled pitching and a perennially deep farm system that keeps churning out interesting young hitters, the Rays likely feel they have the foundation of a contending club largely in place. As is so often the case this time of year, the Rays appear positioned as one of the teams who will in many ways dictate a fair bit of the deadlines dealings. Whether they rattle off several wins and thrust themselves into Wild Card position, maintain the status quo as a bubble team or drop further down the standings, their slate of rehabbing quality arms gives them the flexibility to shop current big league arms be it for other big leaguers in areas of need or near-MLB prospects who can help in 2025. Willie Cauley-Stein Jersey