How an ever-evolving pitch arsenal made Rasmussen into a Rays All-Star

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- There was a lot that went into Drew Rasmussen becoming a first-time All-Star last year and the Rays’ Opening Day starter this season.

Remarkable perseverance to overcome a third major surgery on his right elbow. Tremendous communication with the Rays front office, manager Kevin Cash and pitching coach Kyle Snyder as they managed his workload. A tireless work ethic. Incredible preparation.

And a lot of fastballs. Like, a lot. More than any starting pitcher in baseball, in fact.

Since the start of the 2025 season, 88.6% of Rasmussen’s pitches tracked by Statcast have been some type of fastball. Only two of the 333 Major Leaguers who have thrown at least 1,000 pitches during that time have leaned more heavily on their fastballs than Rasmussen, and they’re both relievers: left-hander Tim Hill (98.5%) and cutter-throwing closer Kenley Jansen (90.2%).

What makes Rasmussen unique is not just that he throws three different kinds of fastballs: a four-seamer, a two-seamer and a cutter. It’s how well he commands all three, how dominant he’s been with them and how he continues to evolve as a pitcher.

“It's impressive that he puts them where they all belong as often as he does,” Snyder said. “I mean, he made the All-Star team with three fastballs.”

Rasmussen’s 2.77 ERA since 2021 is the second-lowest in the Majors among pitchers who have worked at least 400 innings during that time, trailing only Shohei Ohtani (2.72). Whether it’s because of the time he’s missed due to injuries or him pitching for a smaller-market team, his success still seems to fly under the radar.

But there is a lot to appreciate about the way the 30-year-old right-hander has made himself into one of the game’s most effective run-prevention artists on the mound, including the evolution of his pitch mix.

These days, Rasmussen throws six different pitches: a cutter (averaging 90.4 mph this season), a four-seam fastball (96 mph), a two-seam fastball (which Statcast labels a sinker, averaging 95.6 mph), a “kick” changeup (89.7), a curveball (80.7) and a sweeper (85). There’s a reason he uses the fastballs so much, though.

“Hitting’s hard to begin with. Velocity is probably the single hardest element to deal with,” Rasmussen said. “If I can throw you three shapes at a relatively similar velo, but they’re all doing different things, it’s just a guessing game at that point.

“If you have a 33% chance of guessing right, I can live with that. Especially because you could even guess right and do everything right -- and it might still be an out.”

That’s why Rasmussen said he thinks baseball is “trending in the direction” of more pitchers throwing three fastballs. Veteran left-hander Steven Matz saw it work for years with former teammate Lance Lynn, who thrived with an approach heavy on fastballs. But that doesn’t mean it’s simple.

“It's pretty impressive to be able to do that,” Matz said. “It's not easy to be able to manipulate a ball and command it with it going all different directions.”

When Rasmussen came to the Rays in a trade with the Brewers in May 2021, he essentially only threw two pitches: a four-seam fastball and a hard slider that broke downward like former Rays closer Pete Fairbanks’ breaking ball.

As he moved out of the bullpen and into Tampa Bay’s rotation, he learned how to alter his grips on the seams to manipulate the breaking ball in different ways. One of those led to a flatter, firmer pitch that turned into the more traditional cutter he throws now, an offering he uses frequently that breaks in on left-handed hitters.

Combining the cutter with his 95-97 mph four-seam fastball, a bigger-breaking sweeper he picked up in 2022 and a curveball he’s always kept around gave Rasmussen a pretty powerful arsenal. But he felt like there was something missing.

Specifically, something to help him against Bo Bichette.

The former Blue Jays star was a tough out for Rasmussen because he was comfortable hitting pitches that broke away from him, and Rasmussen didn’t have anything at that point to run inside against right-handers like Bichette.

But the Rays’ pitching group, led by Snyder and pitching director Winston Doom, had done their homework.

They recognized Rasmussen had the high arm slot, supination (outward forearm rotation) and aptitude required to pick up a seam-shifted pitch that he grips a lot like his cutter and throws as hard as his four-seamer. Except this one broke in the opposite direction, to Rasmussen’s arm side, giving him three distinct fastballs that move in three different ways.

Rasmussen says he can “vividly remember” the initial proof of concept: Sept. 24, 2022, at Tropicana Field. In his first two at-bats against Bichette, Rasmussen got him to hit into a double play on a sinker running in and struck him out looking on another sinker inside.

They spent more time perfecting the pitch the following Spring Training, and it’s been part of his game ever since.

“He's been on a run where he's mixing them all in, inning to inning, and I think that's what's helped him induce a bunch of soft contact,” Cash said. “He's criss-crossing everywhere on the plate.”

Still, Rasmussen wasn’t content. He’s long worked to add a changeup to his arsenal, and he spent this past Spring Training refining it after finding the right grip late last year.

The pitch moves in the same direction as his two-seamer and comes in about as hard as his cutter, but it tumbles down. In his start against the Twins on Friday, he threw it 18 times and used it to pick up two key strikeouts in the only jam he encountered.

It’s another thing for hitters to keep in mind, another weapon. Not that he really needed one.

“The changeup is going to help him, but the primary attack is always and will always be the fact that he throws three fastballs that really do separate themselves,” Snyder said.