Drew Rasmussen Continues To Be MLB’s Most Underrated Starter

On Wednesday, Just Baseball released its American League and National League Players of the Month for June, and it should come as no surprise that the Tampa Bay Rays swept the AL honors.

Third baseman Junior Caminero was named Just Baseball’s American League Player of the Month, while right-hander Drew Rasmussen earned American League Pitcher of the Month honors.

Of the two, Caminero stole the headlines over the past two weeks, as he’s now hit homers in a franchise-record six straight games. But it’s Rasmussen who has quietly put together one of the best stretches of any pitcher in baseball this season.

MLB’s Most Underrated Starting Pitcher Is on the Fast Track to the All-Star Game

Before we look at Rasmussen’s 2026 season, we have to rewind the clock on the Oregon State product, back to his days in Corvallis, Oregon, where he received Tommy John surgery twice: once in 2016 and again in 2017.

Any pitcher returning from a procedure like that once is quite the story, but doing it twice is remarkable. Unfortunately, Rasmussen’s injury troubles weren’t over. Six years later, after establishing himself as one of the league’s best starting pitchers, he landed on the 60-day injured list on May 12, 2023, and underwent an internal brace procedure on his right elbow.

That marked the third major elbow injury of his career, but somehow since that point, he has not only maintained the success he showed in the rotation from 2021–23, but expanded on it — evolving into one of the most dominant arms on the American League’s top team.

Rasmussen’s comeback began in August 2024 out of the bullpen, a role in which he had previously found success in the minor leagues, as a way to ease him back into MLB action.

The decision was a fantastic one and was already evident in his fastball velocity, up 1.3 mph from where he was in 2023, pre-injury.

Across 28.2 innings pitched Rasmussen had an expected ERA of 2.05, an expected opponent average of .194, 33% chase rate, 31.4% whiff rate and 30.2% strikeout rate, all while walking opponents just 5.2% of the time.

He had control of his fastball and secondary pitches and was able to put them essentially where he wanted to, fooling hitters in the process. That led to a 2.83 ERA and 1.08 WHIP, and he struck out 35 hitters, which yielded nearly a 6:1 strikeout-to-walk rate.

Keep in mind, 28.2 innings is a relatively small sample size, but Rasmussen delivered the results Rays fans were looking for — enough to provide added confidence and optimism heading into a healthy 2025 season.

He delivered once again, tossing a career-high 150 innings to the tune of a 2.76 ERA and 1.02 WHIP with 127 strikeouts (21.7% strikeout rate) and 37 walks. His fastball velocity ticked back down to 95.6 MPH across a full season, as did his chase and whiff rates, sitting in the 53rd and 24th percentiles, respectively.

It might not have been the flashiest season ever, but it gave him and Rays fans confidence and optimism that he could be the unquestioned ace of the pitching staff moving forward.

All of that paved the way for 2026, his best season on record and a season where he has solidified himself as one of the frontrunners for the Cy Young Award in the American League.