Tampa Bay Rays Ace Shane McClanahan Named Top 10 Most Indispensable Player in MLB

The Tampa Bay Rays already went an entire season without Shane McClanahan in 2024, ultimately missing the postseason in his absence.

If, for whatever reason, the Rays lose McClanahan again in 2025, the results could be catastrophic.

MLB.com's Will Leitch published a list of the 10 most indispensable players across the league on Thursday. It wasn't simply a list of the 10 best players in MLB, rather the 10 players whose teams would be "most likely to implode" if they were to lose them.

Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. topped the list, followed by New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Cleveland Guardians third baseman José Ramírez and Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal.

McClanahan, meanwhile, came in at No. 10.

The 27-year-old southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery in August 2023. Before that procedure, McClanahan had established himself as one of baseball's top lefties.

McClanahan went 10-6 with a 3.43 ERA, 1.273 WHIP, 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings and a 1.8 WAR in 2021, finishing seventh in AL Rookie of the Year voting. He made his first All-Star appearance and placed sixth in the AL Cy Young race in 2022 after going 12-8 with a 2.54 ERA, 0.926 WHIP, 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings and a 4.2 WAR.

Before his 2023 campaign got cut short, McClanahan had earned another All-Star nod and was a leading Cy Young candidate once again.

McClanahan is 33-16 with a 3.02 ERA, 1.105 WHIP, 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings and a 8.7 WAR through 74 career big league starts. Max Fried and Clayton Kershaw are the only other left-handed pitchers with an ERA lower than McClanahan's since 2021, minimum 400 innings.

The Rays already pegged McClanahan as their Opening Day starter, even though the regular season was six weeks out at the time. Tampa Bay has five viable options beyond him in Taj Bradley, Ryan Pepiot, Zack Littell, Shane Baz and Drew Rasmussen, but the front office put more pressure on McClanahan by trading away veterans Aaron Civale, Zach Eflin and Jeffrey Springs in 2024.

Without McClanahan, the Rays would lack a true ace with a consistent, high-level MLB resume. He is healthy through one week of spring training, though, so Tampa Bay doesn't have anything specific to worry about at the moment.