Michael Wacha and the Tampa Bay Rays couldn’t have had more of an opposite 2020. Wacha, in his age 28 season, posted a career high in ERA at 6.62 in only 34 frames. The Rays went to the World Series.

Wacha now looks to bounceback in St. Pete as the replacement of Charlie Morton. The Rays have signed him to a 1 year, $3M pact. Wacha could be an extremely savvy low-risk, high-reward deal that we’ve grown accustomed to in Tampa.

Wacha has postseason experience, winning the NLCS MVP as a rookie in 2013 when he gave up zero runs over 13.2 innings of work. That season, the twenty year old posted a 2.78 ERA in just under 65 innings. Over his career, he’s always been solid, but has a lifetime 4.01 ERA in just over 900 innings. His fastball, however, was at its lowest in 2019 when he posted a 5.76 ERA. He was an All-Star in 2015, posting a 3.38 ERA in 181.1 innings.

He’ll take the place of Charlie Morton in the Rays rotation, the most recent veteran to join the rotation having done a stellar job. The rotation now lines up as followed: Snell, Wacha, Glasnow, Yarbrough and Fleming. Yonny Chirinos should come back in the middle or end of the season from Tommy John surgery to help their postseason push.

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