Rays option Trevor Martin back to Durham amid bullpen shuffle

Trevor Martin’s first big-league stay was brief, and it ended the same way so many Rays bullpen stories do: with another arm coming in from Durham and another moving back out. Tampa Bay optioned the 25-year-old right-hander to the Bulls on May 27, 2026, and selected Jonathan Heasley’s contract in the corresponding move, a shuffle that also included placing Gavin Lux on the 60-day injured list.

For Martin, the trip back to Triple-A came after only a short relief look in the majors. He debuted on April 20, 2026, after Mason Englert went on the 15-day injured list with right forearm tightness, and he made his first MLB strikeout count by freezing Matt McLain in that outing. The pitch that finished McLain came in at 94.1 mph, a snapshot of why Tampa Bay was willing to test Martin in a major-league bullpen that never seems to sit still.

That quick promotion and quicker option tells the story of how the Rays have been using Martin: as a fresh, viable reliever who could cover innings when the club needed help, not yet as a locked-in late-game piece. The 2026 numbers show why he was in the mix. In Triple-A, Martin was effective for Durham, and his early major-league line was solid enough to earn a look, but not secure enough to stop the churn around him.

The depth-chart ripple is immediate. Heasley now steps into the vacancy Martin leaves behind, while Tampa Bay continues to manage around injuries and constant roster movement. Lux’s move to the 60-day injured list only deepened the sense that the Rays are building their bullpen day by day, not week by week, and that every healthy arm in Durham remains part of the major-league plan.

Martin’s next assignment in Durham is straightforward: keep missing bats, sharpen the command that lets his stuff play in relief, and prove he can handle the back-to-back demands that come with a permanent MLB role. A third-round pick in 2022 out of Oklahoma State, where he made 52 appearances over two seasons, Martin signed for $586,200 and reached the majors fast. To return, he will need Durham to look less like a stopover and more like a launch point.