Shane Baz

While it seems as if Baz is a major-league vet getting ready for free agency, the fact remains he has pitched fewer than 120 innings at the big-league level and is 7-5 with a 3.38 ERA over 23 career starts. Baz missed all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery and worked nearly 40 innings in Triple-A trying to regain his velocity before finally returning to the major-league roster in early July. Baz never did fully regain his velocity as his average fastball was roughly half a click below where things were in 2022, but his other pitches performed extremely well as the league hit below .170 off all his non-fastball offerings. It was also encouraging to see Baz work six or more innings in six of his final eight starts as he got closer to the full two-year mark from his surgery and his command improved. Baz should be all systems go for 2025, but this is still a pitcher whose 108.2 innings last year between Durham and Tampa Bay is a career high. Read Past Outlooks