Shane McClanahan has taken Tampa Bay Rays baseball, and quite frankly the whole MLB community, by storm in just two starts. The undersized lefty, who flew through the minor league system at a rate Rays pitchers usually don’t from the time he was drafted in 2018, famously made his big-league debut in the postseason, but his real story is beginning now.
If there’s one thing about McClanahan that inspires me so much, it’s the amount of faith the Rays organization seems to have in him already. They see an electric lefty with an incredible 98 mph fastball/90 mph slider combo but instead of doing the slow simmer with him down in the minors, they want him to contribute now … and in a big way. In just two outings against two very tough lineups — the at-bat grinding Athletics and an Angels lineup featuring two of the best players in baseball — McClanahan was tremendous and easily proved his spot in the Rays rotation.
In his last outing, McClanahan completed four scoreless innings against Los Angeles, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out five. For a second straight start, McClanahan dazzled on a short leash. As in his previous outing, McClanahan struck out five over four innings, and he did so Wednesday without allowing a run. The left-hander issued two walks but demonstrated solid control, throwing 44 of 63 pitches for strikes (70% strike rate) and tossing 11 of 16 batters first-pitch strikes (69% first-pitch strike rate). McClanahan has allowed only two earned runs over his first eight big-league innings.
The scary thing that makes the Rays so good to the entire league is their seemingly endless supply of depth. It’s proved to never keep Tampa Bay out of any division race or serious injury to a star because they have an amazing next man up attitude, although with the next men usually being really good already. It almost feels unfair then, when the Rays have a super-prospect collection of Luis Patiño, Shane Baz, Joe Ryan, Brendan McKay, and Cole Wilcox and they can just continuously pump out such effective pitchers without having to go deep into their supply. But, I also believe that Shane is probably better than the Rays had projected him.
An early scouting report from 2018 projected him as a more effective one-inning reliever that doesn’t have the arm to go deep into games without him losing his effectiveness. McClanahan thinks otherwise. In his minor league career, he proved that he can pitch deeply into games by keeping great pitch counts in relation to innings, while also maintaining a fantastic 11.25 K/9 (and a 5.00 K/BB) in his first two 2021 regular-season.
What makes him so effective?
Something really interesting about him is that his windup and throwing action has a lot to do with him making up for his size and stature — something that is important for a flamethrower like him is making sure his fastball is untouched.
There are a lot of great fastballs in the game, but there also are a lot of flat fastballs, that are just heat, and get hit hard because of it. Shane adds another level of difficulty to his fastball when he throws it. He is able to both extend his release point and where he finishes in his windup by almost jumping at the batter, stretching out his body as much as he can each time he throws. Aroldis Chapman instantly comes to mind as he also coils and extends his body to get to a closer release point. The closer the release point, the faster a pitch appears to the batter. It also gets more “life” on the pitch.
Pair an electric fastball that sneaks up on hitters and forces early swings, with a slider that boasts tons of horizontal movement, and you have two prime pitches that are a deadly combination. Forget not that he also has an 85 mph curveball and a 90 mph changeup in his back pocket.
Chris Archer had a pretty great fastball/slider combo in his prime as well, but I can say confidently that these two McClanahan pitches are even better. The sky’s the limit for Shane. With a concrete spot in the starting rotation, and taking on the expected workload for a starter, he’s ready for take-off.