Shane McClanahan

28-Year-Old PitcherSP

Tampa Bay Rays

2026 Stats

W-L

0-0

ERA

0.00

WHIP

0.00

Rest-of-Season Projections

W-L

ERA

WHIP

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2026 Fantasy Outlook

It has now been two full seasons and two surgeries since McClanahan last threw a major league pitch. He left the mound in August of 2023 in the midst of a strong outing against the Yankees as a cautionary move, yet it was the last pitch he has thrown in a regular-season game. He had Tommy John surgery in 2023, and in spring of 2025 McClanahan suffered a freak nerve injury in his final outing in the Grapefruit League. Efforts to rest and rehab the issue were not successful, and McClanahan succumbed to an August 2025 surgery to correct the nerve issue in his elbow. The team has already said they expect him to be all systems go for 2026, but go back and read the same comment from last year's outlook, as the team thought the exact same thing. McClanahan could come out of the gate hot, but what can we honestly expect workload-wise from someone who last threw a regular season pitch on August 2, 2023? He is all risk-reward for 2026, as McClanahan's acquisition costs have never been this low, but his value in mixed leagues will likely be severely limited by workload issues should he avoid further complications. Read Past Outlooks

RANKS

Rest of Season

Overall Rank

Dynasty

From Preseason

#224

ADP

League Majors

Bats L

Throws L

40 Man Yes

Height 6'1"

Weight 200

DOB 4/28/1997

Born Baltimore, MD

College South Florida

Drafted 1st Rd 2018 TB

Dominates in third spring start

PTampa Bay Rays

March 16, 2026

McClanahan struck out seven and walked two without allowing a hit or a run in 3.2 innings Sunday against the Pirates.

Analysis
The lefty's changeup was working well, getting whiffs at a 62 percent clip while he threw it 35 percent of the time. McClanahan's fastball averaged 94.8 miles per hour and touched 97.5 mph -- down from the 97.0 mph he averaged in 2022 and 2023. Still, McClanahan is discounted in drafts and can rack up strikeouts when he's healthy. He's up to eight innings through three spring starts.

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Past Fantasy Outlooks

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

McClanahan never did pitch in 2024 as he continued his recovery from Tommy John surgery on Aug. 21, 2023. The only realistic chance McClanahan had of pitching in 2024 would have been similar to Tyler Glasnow's role in 2022, but the team was never in serious postseason contention as the summer wore on. McClanahan should be all systems go for the 2025 season but it is very likely the club will be conservative with his workload as he returns from his second career TJS. McClanahan's own pitching habits will likely do that anyhow, as pitch efficiency was not exactly a strength of his even before the long layoff. Every pitcher who comes back from a second Tommy John surgery has a different path, and few are as young as McClanahan (27) or as dominant prior to their second procedure. Jameson Taillon has had a good second act of his career, although he was never as good as McClanahan, while Walker Buehler showcased the potential downside in investing in such a pitcher this past season.

You should proceed with the expectation that McClanahan is unlikely to pitch in 2024. He had his second career TJ surgery on August 21st which ended a season that had him in considering for the Cy Young at the break. We do not even have to look too hard for a potential timeline to back up our original statement because this is nearly the same situation Tyler Glasnow went through two years ago. He had TJ surgery on 8/4/21 and returned to throw all of six innings in September of 2022. McClanahan had his surgery more than two weeks later than Glasnow's August date, so the best case scenario is the Rays make it back to the postseason and McClanahan can contribute there in some capacity. The most realistic outcome is he does not throw a pitch in the regular season, so keeper league managers can look to purchase him in the end game at a discount and wait until 2025 for the return on investment.

McClanahan had one of those Jeckyll and Hyde type seasons which felt like a tribute to the 1990 season of Jack Armstrong. Like Armstrong, McClanahan had an amazing first half of the season with a 1.71 ERA, a 0.80 WHIP, and held opposing hitters to a .176 average with 9 wins before the break. He then had a small IL stint, came back with a promising outing, but then struggled in other outings around a second IL stint and won just 4 more games with a 4.20 second half ERA after the break. All in all, he eclipsed projected workload totals and the entire body of work was still very impressive even if it was frontloaded. The evolution of his change was the differentiator for him as it went from a show-me offering to righties to his second most utilized offering with an elite whiff rate giving him two pitches - one for each side of the plate - with elite whiff rates. Durability is the only remaining question mark here for Sugar Shane who looked like he was following the path 2018 Blake Snell blazed for him on the way to the Cy Young that season. That path is still well lit for the lefty.

The original plan for McClanahan was a familiar one for young Tampa Bay hurlers: get sent down late to work on something and show up once service time had been sufficiently manipulated. The young lefty pitched too well for the team to stick with the plan and some other injuries forced the matter, so McClanahan pitched at the big-league level all season under a watchful eye, only exceeding 90 pitches in four of his 25 outings. He won 10 of his 25 outings with a strong 20.1 K-BB% pitching around some traffic on the bases and a league average home run rate. He ran into some issues with his velocity as the season wore on, losing two mph off his fastball from June into August before gaining some of that back in September. His postseason work looked like a young pitcher who was working on fumes, and that will be a fresh memory for 2022 drafting season. Do not expect more than 150 innings from him in 2022.

McClanahan got knocked around in his first taste of Double-A during the 2019 season, posting an 8.35 ERA and 1.96 WHIP with a 21:6 K:BB over 18.1 frames, but he impressed at the alternate training site this past summer. The electric southpaw made his MLB debut in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Yankees. In his lone big-league appearance, he surrendered a hit and a walk before retiring the final batter in the ninth inning. McClanahan figures to begin 2021 at Triple-A, where he will work on honing his command and improving his fourth-pitch changeup. On the strength of his upper-90s fastball and two plus breaking balls, McClanahan will provide MLB value in some multi-inning role sooner than later. However, Tampa Bay could end up using him as a primary pitcher or multi-inning reliever rather than as a traditional starter.

The 31st overall pick in 2018, McClanahan climbed three levels of the minors in his first full season. In his final 20 outings across stops at Low-A, High-A and Double-A, he logged a 3.16 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 126:31 K:BB in 102.2 IP, and that includes two blowup outings at Double-A over the final month of the minor-league season. A 6-foot-1 southpaw who had Tommy John surgery as an amateur, McClanahan has always had electric stuff, but he took a big step forward with his command/control last year. His fastball can touch triple digits and he throws three offspeed pitches, the best being a plus curveball. He has frontline upside if his command gains hold and his slider or changeup improves. However, in a free-thinking organization where Brendan McKay isn't even a lock to be used as a traditional starting pitcher, McClanahan's risk of being relegated to a multi-inning relief role is extreme.

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Successful return to game action

PTampa Bay Rays

March 3, 2026

McClanahan (triceps) allowed two hits and no walks in two scoreless innings during Tuesday's Grapefruit League game against the Phillies. He struck out one.