Edwin Uceta Has Returned To Last Year’s Form After Tough Start
Uceta was amazing in 2024. Let's take a look at how the Rays reliever has followed up his breakout season.
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Edwin Uceta has had one of the more interesting paths to major league dominance you will see. Once a well-regarded arm in the Dodgers’ farm, consistently ranking among their top 30 prospects, he then bounced between teams trying to find any sense of consistency.
He showed flashes of greatness prior to 2024, but never went on a run that was impressive enough to stick with any club.
However, this game has a beautiful way of rewriting careers, and in 2024, Uceta saw his do a complete 180. He didn’t only prove he belonged in the major leagues, he emerged as one of the best relievers in the sport.
Let’s take a look at Edwin Uceta’s breakout 2024 and how he has followed it up this year.
Edwin Uceta’s 2024
Edwin Uceta had no expectations surrounding him heading into 2024. He only made one big league appearance in 2023, and between 2021 and 2022, he held a 6.27 ERA in just over 37 innings pitched.
It was looking more and more likely that Uceta’s big league chances were coming close to an end. However, the Tampa Bay Rays decided to give him a shot when they signed him to a minor league deal on December 12 of 2023. While at the time it didn’t seem like a noteworthy addition, when the 2024 season concluded, it looked like a masterpiece.
Uceta failed to make the Opening Day roster, but it didn’t take long for him to make his Rays debut. On May 6, he came in for two innings and struck out three without surrendering a hit. It was an initial outing that perfectly foreshadowed the type of year Uceta would go on to have.
He went on to make five straight appearances without allowing a run. His sixth appearance of the year was when he surrendered his first run, and it was one of only four games for him – throughout the entire year – in which he allowed a run to score.
The other 26 appearances for Uceta were perfect, giving him a dazzling 1.51 ERA in 41.2 innings across all of 2024. This ERA mark was tied for the third-best clip among relievers who threw at least 40 innings.
He wasn’t just an elite run preventer, either. He could get strikeouts whenever necessary, with an average of 12.31 strikeouts per nine innings, which was the 13th best clip among relievers (min. 40 IP). Uceta also limited walks at a very good clip, only allowing 1.73 per nine, the 19th best mark in the league (min. 40 IP).
Clearly, it was a breakout season in every facet for the 26-year-old. When it looked like Uceta could have been on his way towards the end of his time in Major League Baseball, the Rays took a chance on him, and he capitalized on it.
An Interesting Encore
Unsurprisingly, expectations for Uceta were much higher heading into 2025 compared to the year prior. Even with the reliever position being one of the most volatile in all of sports, many expected him to put up a similar season.
However, those with high expectations were quickly disappointed. It took Uceta only six appearances in 2025 to match the number of games in which he allowed a run through 2024’s entirety (four). In that span, he was walking just under five guys per nine (4.76) and striking out virtually nobody.
While the strikeout numbers got better, this general trend continued for almost three months. Through July 8, Uceta held a 5.77 ERA in 39.0 innings with a BB/9 of 3.69. He was also giving up north of 2.00 home runs per nine, which was an extreme regression compared to his 0.43 clip in 2024.
Uceta looked like a completely different pitcher. He lacked the elite ability to prevent runs and rack up strikeouts that he displayed in his breakout season just the year before.
However, once July 12 hit, a switch was flipped. Uceta suddenly returned to form and looked like he was right back in his 2024 season. In 14 games since that date, Uceta has been nearly unhittable.
| IP | ERA | FIP | K/9 | BB/9 | HR/9 |
| 19.0 | 0.47 | 0.85 | 15.16 | 1.89 | 0.00 |
For a Rays team that has slowly fallen out of contention and played poorly across the last few weeks, Uceta has been one of the bright spots. For over a month now, he’s given the ball club confidence every time he steps on the mound and held down leads when given the opportunity.
Final Thoughts
The last two years for Edwin Uceta have been a perfect encapsulation of what it looks like to be a big league reliever.
In 2024, he was untouchable, putting up numbers that put him in conversations with the best relievers in the game. Fast forward to the middle of 2025, and he was allowing runs at an alarming rate. Then, when his breakout season was starting to look like a fluke, he returned to dominance right in the heart of the summer.
For Tampa Bay, his resurgence has been huge in what has been a disappointing few weeks. He’s been the heartbeat of the bullpen and shown why he belongs. If this run can prove to be more than just a hot stretch, Uceta could solidify himself as a horse in a bullpen looking to contend in the future.
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Michael Monreal got his start in baseball media when he started his own website covering the San Francisco Giants after playing two years of college baseball.…